The flight from the Ice Palace to the masked man's intended destination was a really short one. They hadn't been in the air for five minutes when he and his dragon began descending towards a frozen lake covered in fog in the middle of the mountains over which the moon was barely starting to shine. Elsa followed him, wondering why they hadn't fled deeper into the mountain range.
When they were only a few meters off the ground, the masked man's dragon let go of Marshmallow who barely managed to keep his balance as his momentum carried him forward a couple more meters. Both dragons landed on the ice carefully as to avoid breaking it. Elsa hopped off Wintergale's back, trying to take in her surroundings. She couldn't see a thing through the fog, so she was startled when she made out a shadow approaching her and Wintergale. She raised her hands, getting ready to defend herself if needed.
"Elsa! Wintergale! You're fine!"
Temporarily dumbstruck by the sound of the familiar voice, she nearly jumped when she felt a pair of stick arms wrapping one of her legs. Then it dawned on her that this was the place where Olaf and Sven had first brought Wintergale—and that the one hugging her leg was Olaf.
"Yes, we are," Elsa finally replied, kneeling to return the hug. "What happened? Why did Wintergale show up in the Palace?"
"I don't know," the tiny snowman said. "She began growing restless when the storm above the North Mountain became stronger. She was gone before I could stop her."
Elsa sighed. Wintergale must've sensed that she was in danger. She should've that the dragon wouldn't leave her alone, no matter how much she'd managed to convince her to go with Olaf and Sven in the first place. "Don't worry, Olaf. It wasn't your fault. I was just curious."
Marshmallow drew closer to Elsa's side, his ice spikes still protruding from his body. Olaf looked at him and smiled, letting go of Elsa's leg and running to hug Marshmallow's.
"Brother! You're okay, too!" he exclaimed.
"Little brother Olaf is fine?" Marshmallow asked.
"Yeah, Sven and I are good." Then Olaf seemed to come to a realization. He looked at Elsa. "What happened to your Palace?"
Elsa looked back to the North Mountain. The Palace wasn't entirely destroyed, but the damage would no doubt be extensive… and Sigurd would probably burn it to the ground if possible once he woke up. "That doesn't matter right now, Olaf. We're all alive, and that's something to be grateful for." She noticed that Marshmallow's spikes were beginning to recede—and that his crown was missing.
"Marshmallow, where did your crown go?" she asked him. "Did it fall when we were flying?"
"Bad guys with arrows," he said as he shook his head, a mixture of anger and sadness in his voice. Elsa assumed that one of Sigurd's soldiers had shot the crown off his head.
"Oh, don't worry," she told him, placing a hand on his leg to soothe him. "I'll get it back for you later."
"Hey, you met new friends!" Olaf said, looking past Elsa. She turned around and saw that the warrior and his dragon were approaching the small group. "Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm—" he began as he walked towards them, but he was cut off by Elsa grabbing his hand before he could advance any further. She shook her head slightly and pulled him behind her.
"Please," she said to the warrior, "don't think of me as ungrateful, because I really appreciate what you did for us back there… but why? Why are you helping us? And who are you, anyway?"
The man didn't speak. He just lifted his staff and pointed one end at his dragon then at Elsa. The dragon instantly opened its mouth.
"Wait, w-what are you doing?" Elsa asked. There was no reply, but it became evident that the dragon was about to unleash hell on her and her companions. "No, wait!" she exclaimed, lifting her hands as if to try and tell it stop it.
But the dragon didn't stop. It expelled a vortex of fire at her. Instinctively, she shot as strong a stream of ice magic as possible to try and counter the attack. She didn't have to do it for long, though. For as soon as it had begun, it stopped.
Temporarily blinded by the flash and unable to see past her own nose because of the steam caused by the clash of ice and fire, all she could hear was two distinctive roars to her left and to her right—belonging to Marshmallow and Wintergale, respectively—and another roar in front of her. Then she felt a gust of wind against her face that quickly cleared the air and revealed its source to be the four-winged dragon who was batting its wings mightily. To its side, the man stood unmoved, no longer commanding it to attack.
Elsa gestured at Marshmallow and Wintergale to stand down and stay behind her. "Why would you do that?!" she shrieked at the man.
"Sorry about that, but I needed to see it from up close," the warrior spoke—with a distinctively feminine voice. Elsa's jaw dropped. Not only had this mysterious guy finally decided to talk to her, but now it also turned out that the guy was actually a girl.
"See what?" was all Elsa could ask, still in shock.
"If you truly had control over the elements," the warrior replied stoically. Elsa frowned. "I saw it before when you were flying on the Ice Fury's back but couldn't believe my eyes. I've been observing you for a few days now, in fact. I don't know who you are, but I must say that I'm impressed by your mastery of such an amazing gift."
"Observing me?" Elsa repeated.
"To determine whether you had what it took to look after this Ice Fury," the woman replied, gesturing with her hand at Wintergale.
"Ice Fury?" Elsa parroted. "Is that what you call her?"
"That's how all dragons of her kind are called."
Elsa was getting more confused by the minute. "Her kind? You mean there are other kinds of dragons out there? How can they still be alive? And how come no one has seen a dragon in so many centuries?"
The warrior shook her head in disbelief. "I suppose I shouldn't expect less from someone like you."
Elsa furrowed her brow even more, slightly offended by those words. "Someone like me?"
"Someone from a world that no longer believes in dragons—a world that has degraded them to mere myths and legends." Elsa opened her mouth to speak, but the warrior held up her right hand, still holding her staff only with her thumb, and spoke first. "I imagine you have a hundred more questions, so if you would let me teach you some history, I believe they will all be answered—or at least most of them, hopefully."
"What? You won't even tell me your name, but you want to teach me some history?"
"My name is not important. What I have to tell you is."
Elsa was starting to lose patience—and it showed. Snow was starting to fall all over the place. "No, I need to return to Arendelle. Sigurd has my sister and her boyfriend, and if I don't get back before he does—"
"We still have plenty of time before that man and his pitiful army returns to your town. After all, we have something they don't," the woman said, patting her dragon.
Elsa wasn't sure what to think. First, this woman appeared out of nowhere and saved her; then, she tried to cook her; and now, she wanted her to just sit and listen to a story? For better or for worse, though, she was right; the dragons could get them all there faster. Besides, Elsa needed something to calm herself, and even though she didn't want to admit it, she did want to know about the fate and apparent survival of dragons. Perhaps listening to this mysterious person would allow her to focus on something other than Sigurd.
She finally sat down. Olaf and Marshmallow did the same, but Wintergale didn't even rest on her hind legs, though she at least seemed a bit more relaxed than when the four-winged dragon attacked them.
"Hundreds of years ago," the woman began, "dragons used to roam free all over the earth. Humans feared them, but they also respected them, and some even revered and worshipped them. But one day, that fear became so great that it drove humans to hunt and kill dragons. Eventually, all the dragons disappeared from your world—all of them."
"Sorry to interrupt," Elsa said, "but why is it that you keep saying 'your world'? What, are you from another world or something?"
"You could say that, yes," the woman replied. "I'm from the world of dragons—or rather, from the part of this world to which all dragons were forced to flee. Fortunately, humans in this age have chosen to explore and expand their frontiers eastward and westward instead of northward."
"You mean…?"
The woman nodded. "Despite the continuing war between dragons and Vikings, dragons have managed to thrive in the northernmost part of the Earth."
"Vikings?" But that couldn't be. The Viking Age had ended 700 years ago.
The woman chuckled. "You'd be surprised of how much of Viking culture has survived the passing of time. Many Viking tribes have remained isolated from the rest of the world, living in island and coastal regions far to the North, including the one I once belonged to."
Elsa was baffled. "So… you're a Viking?"
"Not anymore," the woman said solemnly after a short pause, lowering her head. There was a trace of regret and longing in her voice. If only Elsa could see her expression behind that mask…
"What happened?" Elsa asked her.
The woman sighed. "Some of us were just born different." When Elsa frowned once more at this statement, she continued. "The island where I used to live has always been a land of 'kill or be killed', but I always thought peace was possible. It was a very unpopular opinion. Then, one night, during a raid, a dragon broke into our house, finding my newborn son in the cradle. Despite my beliefs, I would never have traded the life of my child for that of a dragon, so I rushed to protect him. But what I saw when I arrived at the house was proof of everything I believed." She placed a hand on her dragon's neck. "He was looking at my son with curiosity, almost as if it were his own. Then it looked at me, the child's mother, and I saw in his eyes that this wasn't a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature whose soul reflected my own."
Elsa was absolutely amazed by this Viking woman's account. In a way, she identified herself with her. She had felt and thought the same thing when she found Wintergale.
"My husband was the chief of the village. He loved me, but he never agreed with my opinion. So, when he arrived at the house, he didn't hesitate to fight the dragon in order to protect us. Of course, the dragon was forced to fight back. He went to save our son first, probably hoping that I would be able to fend the dragon off until he could finish him. But I couldn't even lift the sword. How could I take its life? And when the dragon looked at me again, he seemed to read my thoughts… my soul. So, instead of killing me, he snatched me from the house. All I could hear as the dragon flew me away was the hopeless voice of my husband calling my name. I never saw him or my son again, but I know in my heart that they're still alive and well."
"I'm sorry," Elsa said.
"Don't be," the woman replied, recovering her firm and confident voice. "Like I said, I'm no longer a Viking. I'm more of a dragon—always have been. They always were my passion, and that passion only grew after I was taken. I'll admit, I was afraid at first, but after a day or so of travel, it became apparent that this dragon didn't want to kill me. Every once in a while during our flight, he would look down at me with peaceful eyes, making sure I was fine. Then we finally reached our destination, even farther away to the North. It was a dragons' nest—an enormous, magnificent cave encased in ice. And its creator was no other than a Bewilderbeast, the king of all dragons. We're talking about a gigantic sea dragon that breathes ice and is capable of controlling other dragons. When I was brought before him, I feared for my life once again, but the Bewilderbeast must've seen the same thing that Cloudjumper did, for it just welcomed me with open arms… so to speak."
Cloudjumper? Elsa wondered. Then she looked at the four-winged, owl-like dragon and assumed that it was the one the woman was talking about. Nice name.
"It's been 15 years since that day, and I've spent each of them rescuing dragons, saving them from both certain death at the hands of other bloodthirsty Vikings and a life of slavery and suffering under Drago Bludvist's command."
"Who?" Elsa asked.
"I've become wary and distrusting of other humans," the woman continued, ignoring Elsa's question. "No person has ever given me a reason to trust them… until now."
She looked at Elsa who suddenly lost all interest in her previous doubt. What could she have done to earn this warrior woman's trust?
Almost like she could read her mind, the woman said, "There are some things you need to know first."
"Just some?"
The woman looked away, to the horizon. "What I'm about to tell you is something I'm not entirely sure about myself. I've been collecting bits and pieces of information over the last decade, but it wasn't until recently that I found a vital piece of the puzzle, allowing me to decipher and understand it all about your dragon and her kind's history.
"Long ago, a Viking called Bork took the initiative of studying and classifying dragons in order for future generations to know their so-called enemy and how to fight them. He wrote a book, the Book of Dragons, from most of his field notes, but he kept some of them to himself, mostly whenever he believed that they referred to general folklore rather than actual dragons. He passed down all of his lifework, including said notes, to his descendants. I was a friend of the latest of them, and after some time of knowing each other, one night he finally allowed me access to Bork's private archive. That was the same night I was taken. I had the notes regarding mythological dragons in my hand when they attacked, and in my haste to go out and help, I lost the pages… but I still remember every single word written in them.
"Among those notes, I found some mentioning the existence of dragons capable of becoming as black as night itself or as white as the purest snow at will, and of breathing fire or ice. No one had seen them before, and even Bork was never able to get close to them, but he did find their nest—a snowy mountain in the mainland. According to him, even from a distance one could see the sheer amount of dark shadows flying around the mountain, guarding it at night, and during the day, when the black shadows were gone and he tried to get close to their nest, the snow would stare at him with thousands of blue eyes. Bork believed that this was not one single dragon species but two separate, yet related, species. He called them Night Furies and Ice Furies, respectively.
"Around the time I was taken, Night Furies had already been attacking my village for some time, along with some other dragon species, and so Gobber—Bork's descendant—had updated the Book of Dragons to include them in its pages, even when they were still a mystery. Ice Furies, however, had never appeared anywhere. I was intrigued after reading about them, and after Cloudjumper and I bonded, I decided to finish Bork's work and learn about Ice Furies. Bork's notes included the exact location of the Furies' mountain, so I traveled there. But when I arrived, I found nothing. The place was completely devoid of life.
"I wasn't sure if it was some sort of trap or something, so I had to gather every last bit of courage inside of me to venture inside the mountain caves. There were ice blasts covering the walls, similar to those of the Bewilderbeast but much smaller, and the amount of snow almost made the tunnels impassable. It took me a while to find them… hundreds of skeletons belonging to both dragons and humans. It was a terrifying scene. Today I feel like I desecrated a graveyard.
"I also found lots of eggshells, which served to confirm Bork's theory that this was the Furies' nest. I knew for a fact that Night Furies were still alive, so I could only assume that a human army of dragon slayers eradicated most of them and drove the rest away—which resulted in them being forced to seek refuge far away from their home.
"It would later turn out that I was right."
There was a deep sadness in her words. This woman mourned the loss of so many dragons more than the loss of human life. Had she met her before finding Wintergale, she'd probably have considered her a mad person. But having met Wintergale first, Elsa was starting to feel the same sadness as the story progressed, mostly because she imagined how lonely Wintergale would've been without others like her. Why would anyone do such a thing? Why kill an entire species like that? And yet, she knew firsthand how powerful fear could be and what it could force people to do.
"Years later, I found an ice cave in the middle of the ocean, only a few days West of the mainland. It was the lair of another Bewilderbeast, but it was abandoned, and even on the outside, it showed signs of a battle taking place there long ago. And when we entered it…" There was a long pause. Even with that mask on, the woman looked troubled. "There were several shipwrecks, human remains by the hundreds with their weapons scattered everywhere… and the remains of the Bewilderbeast itself… with a massive harpoon still embedded in its skull. But if that weren't enough, I also found its carbonized eggs… It was heartbreaking.
"Later, on the bow of the largest shipwreck, I found a massive weapon. It had Drago's signature all over it. I had seen them before—large tubes capable of spitting fireballs at great speed. This one, though, wasn't designed to shoot fire. I believe he used it to shoot that harpoon on the poor Bewilderbeast's head."
This was the second time that she mentioned the name 'Drago', but by now, Elsa knew better than to ask about it. It was obvious, however, that whoever this Drago character was, he despised dragons and had the means to eradicate them. Of course she recognized the weapon the woman had described; it was a cannon, one capable of dealing the killing blow to even the biggest dragons such as the one the warrior had mentioned. No wonder she hated him.
"I could stand it no more and thought of leaving that place in that instant, but something compelled me to stay. There was something else about this place. Along with the characteristic ice blasts from a Bewilderbeast, there were smaller blasts everywhere on the ground. Soon I discovered that, along with the human remains, there were Furies' skeletons by the dozens, all with swords and spears and arrows piercing their bones. They probably were the last Ice Furies… and now they were gone…
"I figured that they had taken refuge in this Bewilderbeast's home, only to meet their end at the hands of a merciless madman. That was too much for me to handle, so I hopped on Cloudjumper's back and took flight… but then, when we took off and I was able to see the scene from above, I realized that most of the Furies' skeletons formed a perfect circle and that they were arranged in such a way that they were protecting something. In fact, they were all facing to the center of the circle—to a considerably large ice formation. We landed close to it… and that's where I found her."
For the first time in a while, she looked back to her small audience, namely at Wintergale. She dropped her shield and staff and approached the Ice Fury ever so slowly. The white dragon snarled, but the woman was not deterred. With each step she took, Wintergale's defiant attitude faded more and more, until she was finally able to place her hand on the dragon's head. And in that instant, Wintergale lost all of her fierceness and crooned softly. Elsa was speechless, in awe of this woman—this dragon rider and tamer.
"Oh, she's beautiful," the woman said. "When I found her encased in ice in that cave, I felt a spark of hope. Even to their dying breath, the last members of this magnificent species had devoted themselves to save at least one of their own from such a bloody fate. They sacrificed themselves to ensure that she wouldn't suffer.
"Despite what I felt each time I saw that overwhelmingly sad battle scenario, I kept visiting that cave—visiting her—whenever possible. Each time I was there, I daydreamed of this Ice Fury freeing itself from its ice shell and flying away to find another one of her kind, no matter how absurd it could seem. I imagined all the things, all the secrets that I could learn from them if such a thing happened. But I never actually thought I'd get to see her like this—alive and well.
"Then, a year ago, there was an unnatural change in the weather. No matter how far to the South I went, there was ice and snow everywhere I looked. Even the ocean was frozen solid. For some reason, after several wintery days, I felt compelled to go to the cave, but when I arrived, I was horrified to see that there was a huge gap in the ice where she used to be. There was also a new ship—not a shipwreck, but a perfectly functional ship, if only with some minor damage. Its crew probably found the cave and decided to seek refuge from a storm. I found several tracks leading from the ship to the Ice Fury's tomb, and from there they lead away from the cave towards the mainland, across the frozen sea.
"Someone had taken her. I couldn't—I wouldn't—let them do it, whoever 'they' were, so Cloudjumper and I went looking for them. I followed their tracks all the way to the mainland within hours. They probably had been traveling for days by now to get that far. And suddenly, the inclement weather stopped. It all happened in an instant. The ice and snow were gone, and the sea was thawed. The forests were green once more—and among the trees, I caught a glimpse of a white blur running away to the North. It was the Ice Fury, no longer frozen… and alive."
Elsa remained silent. She was aware of her involvement in this woman's story and would tell her about it later, but not now. She was still trying to cope with the fact that Wintergale's fate was more closely related to Elsa's than what she'd previously thought. After all, had she not unleashed an eternal winter and then undone it, her dragon would still be trapped in that ice.
"I didn't care about learning who the trappers were anymore. I just began looking for the white dragon. It ran fast, almost as much as a Night Fury in midflight, and it didn't stop to rest until it reached its destination a couple of days later—the Fury Mountain. Fast though he is, Cloudjumper was unable to keep up the pace with the Ice Fury, and we were finally forced to land and rest, still a day away from the mountain. By the time we were able to reach it, the dragon was gone.
"I couldn't find an explanation as to why the dragon would journey back to that place after everything that had happened there. Moreover, I couldn't understand why it hadn't flown all the way there. I was starting to think that my efforts to rescue and bring the dragon back home with me would ultimately be in vain, but I searched for it in the vicinity of the mountain nonetheless. And as chance would have it, this search wouldn't prove useful, for while I didn't find the Ice Fury, I did find something I hadn't seen the first time I'd been there. To the East and only a day's journey from the mountain, to the side of a cliff, there was a large village… an abandoned village, destroyed and burned to the ground long ago.
"I had a feeling that it could be important, so I went down to take a closer look. It didn't take me long to realize that this human settlement had been attacked by dragons. There were many scorch marks, but they all belonged to the same kind of dragon. I recognized them from those found in my village after any given dragon raid in the past. They belonged to Night Furies.
"There were very few human remains—which was understandable, considering who had been behind this attack. But much to my surprise, there were no less than a dozen Furies' skeletons, all with arrows or spears stuck between the bones. The whole village had been leveled, except for the one building carved into the cliff rather than made with wood. It was the village archive. Their entire recorded history was in there, from the moment of its foundation to its very last minutes of existence. The latter must've been written down by those who sought shelter inside the building. Those records confirmed my theory that the village had been attacked solely by Night Furies… and also shed some light on the reason why it happened."
Elsa noticed that the dragon rider's hands were trembling. Had she found something even more shocking in that archive than what she'd found in the mountain and the ice cave?
"The village chieftain had rallied men from several Viking tribes to eradicate the dragons living in the mountain, despite the fact that none of them had ever raided a single human settlement," the woman continued. There was rage in her words, and Elsa realized that the trembling hands were not because of shock or sadness but because of the anger she felt. "These people lived of farming and hunting, but some of the villages they traded with depended on fishing to survive, and apparently there was a shortage of fish at some point because the Furies used to harvest those waters to feed themselves. Those other villages sought the help of this chieftain who had fought other dragons in the past, and he didn't hesitate to eradicate the Furies. It probably was with the purpose of earning the loyalty of those people so he could later control them.
"Among the region dwellers, it was widely known that the black dragons guarded the mountain at night while the white dragons went fishing and that the opposite thing happened during the day. The chieftain believed that it would be easier to fight the ice-breathing dragons rather than the fire-breathing ones, so they assaulted the mountain one day in broad sunlight when the Night Furies were nowhere around, in the hopes that by eliminating the white dragons, the black ones would leave. Most of the people he rallied paid a steep price by doing so, but their quest was successful. They killed most of the white dragons and destroyed their nest.
"There were only a few dragons that survived the attack by fleeing the mountain, carrying their eggs and even some newborn babies in their paws. The record proudly included accounts of the people who shot most of them out of the sky and how they reveled in seeing the eggs shatter and the babies fatally wounded upon falling.
"The following night, the Night Furies had laid waste to the village.
"Learning all this had me thinking a lot. Why would the Night Furies destroy this place and leave afterwards? If the menace was gone, why didn't they stay? But then a thought occurred to me, a crazy thought which could seem impossible… and yet, it gave sense to everything else."
She paused and looked at Elsa. "Did you get the same feeling I got around this Ice Fury—that it was a female?" Elsa nodded. "Well, that's because she is. All Ice Furies are females," she stated with absolute certainty.
"What?" Elsa asked. "How can you possibly know that?"
"I don't know, but it's the only possible explanation. Night Fury sightings had been decreasing each year in every Viking village by the time I was taken. That shouldn't be happening. Even after leaving their original home, there should've been enough of them to reproduce. Their numbers should've been growing or at least remained the same, which could only mean they'd been dying off, either of old age or killed by other dragons or Vikings—all because there are no females to mate with anymore."
There can be any number of reasons for that," Elsa tried to argue, but she couldn't even get to her next sentence.
"Yes, but this is the only one that explains everything. Why else would Ice Furies also be near extinction? And why would they behave like that?"
"Behave how?"
"Of the few ones that tried to escape the massacre, all were carrying eggs and babies in their paws, remember? They could've flown away with greater ease without the additional weight, especially considering that their precious cargo required a more delicate flight, but they wouldn't leave the young ones behind. That's maternal instinct! This Ice Fury here must've been among the last surviving youngsters in the Bewilderbeast's lair. Drago and his soldiers must've killed the rest, and when the older Furies became aware of this, they all gave up their lives to save her. Again, that's what a mother would do!"
The dragon rider seemed overly excited about all this. Elsa wouldn't know about motherhood as she was not a mother, but this woman was, so she should take her word for it. Besides, it did make sense. But… "But that would mean that the older Furies knew she would survive inside the ice."
"Yes! I read in the Book of Dragons about another kind of dragon—the Skrill—that could also stay safely frozen for decades because of their internal body temperature, but that's not the point. What matters is that Bork and all Vikings after his time had it all wrong for centuries! Night Furies and Ice Furies are not two different kinds of dragons but one single species, with males and females having their own unique characteristics!"
Then, all of a sudden, she sobered up. "That's also why the Night Furies attacked that village. It was a retaliation strike, an act of vengeance for the murder of their mates and offspring. It's also why they didn't stay in the mountain after the threat was gone. They had no reason to stay. Their families were gone."
"Families? So, what, you think the Furies were social animals, like wolves?"
"Absolutely, and perhaps even more so. Think of it. Night Furies fishing during the day and Ice Furies fishing during the night. They took turn to feed themselves and to bring food to the baby Furies. They took care of each other, both males and females using their respective camouflaging abilities to remain concealed while guarding the mountain."
Elsa thought about all this for a moment. Then she considered something. "You said there were Bewilderbeast eggs in that ice cave?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't find any other dragon remains other than those of the Bewilderbeast and the Furies, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"Could it be possible that the Ice Furies' maternal instinct also inspired them to stay in the Bewilderbeast's lair specifically to take care of its eggs as well as of their offspring?"
The dragon rider seemed to mull this over for a few seconds. "Yes," she said slowly and with a pensive tone. "Yes, of course! They all probably chose that specific location as their new home to take care of the Bewilderbeast's eggs along with their own surviving babies. Now that's something that hadn't occurred to me before. Nice thinking, young girl."
Elsa smiled. Listening to this woman and even participating in her theories had helped her clear her mind and calm down. And while Wintergale's was a somewhat tragic story, at least now she wasn't alone. Who knew? Maybe one day a Night Fury would show up somewhere and the dragon rider would be able to bring the two Furies together. She chuckled at the thought of baby Furies. If they were half as cute as Wintergale could be on occasion, then she'd be in for a treat with her baby dragons someday.
"Of course, after finding that record and realizing everything I just told you, I couldn't just let this Ice Fury get herself killed, so I began searching for her again. It took me a couple of months, but I finally began to distinguish a pattern—villages mysteriously thrown into a short-lived winter from North to South of the mainland. Eventually, I found the dragon as it fled from one village to another. Again, it was running. I tried to get close to her whenever I managed to catch up with it, but it ran away each time. It always ran. I can only assume that she decided to behave less like a dragon to avoid being caught and slain as easily as her relatives were—and that included flying. In the end, I…" She paused when Elsa began shaking her head. "What?"
"That's not it," Elsa said. "At least not entirely. When I first tried to convince Wintergale to fly me home, she looked terrified, almost as if she believed she'd die the moment she even tried to take flight. Maybe she was one of the newborn babies that survived. I mean, imagine if you were only a few days old and saw how other dragons fell to the ground while flying away from your home as you are carried in your mother's arms… or paws, or whatever. The thing is, as a child, one perceives the world in a different way. Believe me, I know."
The rider seemed deep in thought. "A dragon with fear of flying, all because of a horrible childhood memory," she murmured. "That's a first. It makes sense, though. Anyway, in the end, I thought it would be better if I just kept my distance and gave her the means to survive without her knowing. Did you know that Stormcutters like Cloudjumper here can breathe fire on seawaters long enough to evaporate enough of the water and make it rain for a short time over a small region?"
Elsa gave the rider a double take. "You have been causing the rain that Wintergale turned to snow and used to sneak into Arendelle?"
"Only after she took longer than usual to leave her hiding place and head towards another village, just in case. She's really smart, as you already know. Not many dragons can come up with such creative ways to alter their environment."
Wintergale walked closer to Elsa who looked briefly at Olaf and Marshmallow before wrapping her arm around her dragon's neck. Olaf seemed fascinated with this woman's story, while Marshmallow remained serious. She considered the rider's words. "Yes, she is," she agreed with her last statement.
The dragon rider then picked up her shield and staff and moved away from the icy lake they'd been standing on, towards the rather small cave where Sven was sleeping. Elsa and her snowmen followed her. She had Cloudjumper light a small fire on the ground and then sat down with a heavy sigh. "I've talked long enough, and you already know where this story ends. I could use a story myself, so I think now it's your turn to tell me one, miss…"
It wasn't until now that Elsa remembered she hadn't had the chance to introduce herself. "Oh, sorry. I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle." She mentioned her royal title without pride but humbly.
"Queen?" the rider repeated. "So you are royalty."
Elsa blinked. "You knew? But you said you didn't know who I was."
"I didn't, but I guessed as much. Ice Palace, elegant outfit—it wasn't that hard to deduce. Except that I thought you were a princess, not a queen."
Elsa shrugged. "It's been only a year since my coronation."
The rider nodded—and at last, she took her mask off, allowing Elsa to see her face. Judging by the fact that she'd mentioned having a child over fifteen years ago, she'd expected to see someone… older. This woman, however, looked amazingly young. She had beautiful light green eyes and light olive skin, not to mention that slim figure—not exactly what she'd imagined a Viking woman to be. Her expression was hard to read, though. She showed no emotion in her face, almost making the removal of the mask pointless.
"You intrigue me, Queen Elsa," she said. "Perhaps as much as this Ice Fury. I want to know who you are and what made this dragon trust you so much—beside your powers over the elements."
"Actually, my magic is limited to ice and snow. I can't control everything else."
"Oh. My mistake. Still, there has to be something else that brought you and this dragon together."
Elsa scoffed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you that I may have more to do with the circumstances that brought Wintergale back to life."
And during the next two hours, Elsa shared her own life story with the dragon rider, from the moment when she learned as a child that she had ice powers, to the incident with Anna, to her years of isolation, to her parents' demise, to her coronation day and the events that followed, to her learning that love was the key to controlling her abilities, and finally to the present day. The rider listened carefully and silently, only nodding every now and then. Elsa took care to voice her own thoughts regarding the timing of the events that brought those men to the ice cave and allowed for Wintergale's resurrection.
It was well past midnight by the time she'd finished telling her story, including the most recent events such as her encounter with Sigurd and Wintergale. The rider remained silent for a while after that. Olaf and Marshmallow, and even Wintergale and Cloudjumper, had all fallen asleep by now, so it was just the two of them awake. Again, it was easier to read this woman's body language, scarce though it was, than her facial expression.
"Let me get this straight," she finally said. "You built that Ice Palace all by yourself?"
"Yes," Elsa replied, the slightest hint of pride in her voice.
"Wow. It's a beautiful place, I must say. I'm sorry I had to damage it."
"That's okay. If I could build it from scratch, I'm sure I'll be able to fix it."
Elsa nearly fell backwards when the woman smiled at her. "I like your confidence, Queen Elsa. You sure have come a long way from that fearful young lady you used to be. And now I see why you were able to bond so closely with Wintergale. I like that name, by the way."
"Thank you. My sister Anna helped me choose it."
The sole mention of Anna brought Elsa back to reality. Sigurd would probably be already on his way back to Arendelle, and even while it would still take him a day or so to get there, the fact was that her sister had her days numbered unless she returned to save her.
"I mentioned before that I had found no reason to trust any other human in a long time until I met you," the woman said, "and I still mean that. In a way, you, just like me, have the soul of a dragon. No one else would've had mercy for the Ice Fury like you did. Under other circumstances, I would let you keep Wintergale, knowing that her life is in good hands, but…"
Elsa's heart skipped a beat. "But?"
The rider sighed. "That man, Sigurd, will keep harassing you and your people for as long as he knows that you are protecting his price. Wherever he came from, he obviously has some degree of charisma if he managed to gather such an army from so many towns and villages. Even if you managed to make him leave, he'd probably bring reinforcements with him in the future… and I don't think you'd take the alternative of killing him. So, as long as this Ice Fury is here, both she and your kingdom won't be safe. And no matter how hard you try to keep her from all harm, eventually you will be forced to make a choice between Wintergale's life and the lives of your loyal subjects—and your loved ones. I can't allow that."
"What are you saying, exactly?" Elsa asked with concern.
"I'm saying that it might be in Wintergale's best interest to come with me, back to my dragon sanctuary. She will be safe there, and she won't be alone. There may not be any Furies there, but she will have more dragons to get along with at least."
Elsa looked at a peacefully sleeping Wintergale. "But… I saved her…"
"And you nearly got her killed today. I don't blame you for what happened back at your Ice Palace, and I know you tried to do your best to protect her, but this is not what you're meant to do. You're a Queen, not a warrior. And even if you were, we both know this dragon has seen enough war for a lifetime. She needs to live at peace now."
Elsa shook her head. The mere thought of letting Wintergale go broke her heart. Their destinies were intertwined. How could she get separated from her?
"I know it's not an easy choice to let go of someone you love, so I'll give you some time to think about it," the rider told her calmly as she put her mask back on. "Now get some rest. We only have less than a day to prepare for your return to Arendelle to save your sister."
Reference Notes:
1) Just a friendly reminder: this story takes place a year after the events of Frozen, which ocurred in parallel with episode 14 of Dragons: Defenders of Berk (also titled "Frozen"). I reckon that by said episode, it's been at least a year since HTTYD, so at this point, it's been two years since Hiccup found Toothless—and thus, it's been seventeen years since Valka went missing.
2) Based on multiple reliable sources—fan theories, if you must—Frozen takes place in the late 18th century (circa 1780). According to Wikipedia, "The Viking Age was the period from 793 AD to 1066 AD in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids and conquest." That means Vikings shouldn't even be around anymore, but for continuity's sake, let's entertain the thought that Vikings managed to get this far while keeping their customs and traditions by staying isolated from the rest of the world.
3) Hiccup's words may support the previous argument: "This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery." In other words, Berk is waaay up North. Also, the journey between the dragon sanctuary and Berk in HTTYD2 doesn't take too long, which means they are not that far apart—and the sanctuary seems to be closer to the Arctic Circle than not.
4) If Cloudjumper believed that Valka belonged "in the home of the great Bewilderbeast," then the sanctuary already existed by the time he took her there. She may say that the Bewilderbeast "built our nest", but IMHO, I think she just adopted the nest as her own well after the fact.
5) My theory of a single species of Furies is more complex than just sexual dimorphism. Both males (Night Furies) and females (Ice Furies) were meant to protect the nest and are physically made to do it, only they had different ways to achieve this. Under the cover of the night, the males could fly all around the mountain and scare off intruders—and if needed be, get rid of them by shooting plasma at their opponents—while the females went to the sea to feed themselves. Then, during the day, the males would go eat while some of the females stayed inside the caves and the rest of them would blend into the snowy environment and stand guard. The females' ice blast may not be as powerful as the males' plasma blast, but it's still enough to defeat an opponent.
6) The idea of social Furies came from penguins! As you know, penguins for the most part breed in large colonies, which results in a high level of social interaction between birds. With the exception of the emperor penguin, where the male does it all, all penguins share the incubation duties. These incubation shifts can last days and even weeks as one member of the pair feeds at sea. The same happens with Furies, except that the incubation shifts last only 12 hours each. Of course, Valka wouldn't have been able to compare Furies with penguins because the latter live in the Southern regions of the globe.
7) Pay special attention to the part about the village chieftain that wiped out most of the Ice Furies and drove them away, 'cause it will play a pivotal role later on!
A/N: When I first began writing this chapter, I didn't intend it to be this long. In fact, it was meant to have a cliffhanger with Elsa returning to Arendelle just as Sigurd is about to [SPOILER]. However, after ten days of writing it, I've finally decided that it would've taken me at least another day or two to update, and, come on, who wants that?!
Also, as you can see, I did more than just write a chapter this time. I actually took some time to do some research, cross-referencing stuff between franchises and acquiring some historical and scientific data, to make sure to get it all right. You see (and if there are any TFRR fans reading this, you know it's true), I don't like leaving plot holes in my stories, and if I ever do leave one accidentally, I try to fix it somehow. Granted, no story is perfect, and I don't intend mine to be, but I hate simply spitting out information with no solid background to support it. Though I'll have to admit, I'm a bit of a perfectionist most of the time.
Anyway, I hope the wait is more than worth it. Please, tell me what you think of my (Valka's and Elsa's) theories. I enjoy reading your comments and thoughts. Speaking of which...
24 reviews! That's the most reviews I've received for a single chapter. Ever. In any of my stories. I'm overwhelmed! I'll try to reply to as many as possible right now, but please understand that I'm uploading this chapter at nearly 8 am local time, after dedicating myself to transcribing the last few pages from my notebook to the computer since 1 am... and I still have to finish my homework for today... aaand I've got less than an hour to do it. So, if you don't find a reply to your review here in the next 12 hours, don't worry (and please, don't kill me). I'll reply to any missing reviews for Chapter 9 as soon as I get back from school, so keep refreshing the page until you find your reply.
Now, let's get on with it:
RedApple435: In that case, I hope this chapter has met your expectations. Thanks!
alive-in-us: Phew, thank goodness! And thank you! I'm glad you liked that entrance. Did you like this one?
Cry-Pom: Thanks, I will! Glad you liked it.
lady: Hahaha, you bet! And don't worry, Elsa will do something to get rid of them... but I won't spoil it for you. ;)
Jenson22: Thank you! Unfortunately, we're still a ways before we get to that meeting.
OpalLynx: Hehe, don't worry about getting off track; I do it sometimes. I share your thoughts and feelings about HTTYD2. And thank you fur such a wonderful review! I loved it!
magiclover13: Okay, that has to be one of the best reviews in history (no offense to the rest; I love them all, but this one was special). It made me laugh so hard and kept me smiling for two days straight. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
PascalDragon: Don't you worry about Anna and Kristoff, they'll be just fine. Thanks for your review, Sven!
YouNameIt: Thank you! I hope this chapter answered most of your questions (except for the one about Hiccup and Elsa; sorry, you'll have to wait a bit longer). The kindred spirit is none other than Wintergale; you know, ice powers, both of them lonely and living in fear, you name it. (No pun intended.)
Rat001: *choking from the tight hug* Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. :)
Hang Tuah: I'm glad you're enjoying it and hope this chapter was of your liking. And yeah, I can say that there are plans to have Wintergale and Toothless become mates... eventually. Thank you!
SerenityQuill: Yes, he is. But don't worry, he'll get his due. I'm glad you like this story. And could you please PM me with an example of what you mentioned about sentence structure, please? It's just that I'm a bit confused by the example you gave. Thanks!
Chapter 11 should be easier to write now that I've gotten this one out of the way... hopefully. I'll try to update within five days tops. In the meantime... well, you already know the drill. Have a nice day!
P.S.: Any Once Upon A Time fans here? And if so, are you as excited as I am about the cast for the new season? Please, share your thoughts!
UPDATE: Here are the replies to the missing reviews:
UnknownBlackHand: Sorry, it's still gona take a few more chapters before that. Anna might be able to deal with Sigurd's men if she wants to... we'll get to see if she does on the next chapter. Thanks!
Pabulover123: Valka definity has a flair for the dramatic! And Sven is such a cool reindeer! I'm glad you liked it.
Guest: Thank you! I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, but I still hope you liked this chapter.
White Hunter: Now you know where she took them, and don't worry, the sisters will see each other again soon.
Guest: Hmmm... interesting suggestion. Might feel inclined to do it if the story allows for it. Thank you!
Just curious: She will, but not anytime soon. You'll know when she does. ;)
Guest: Yeah, I actually do. I haven't changed the outfit yet because, as Elsa was just beginning to ride on Wintergale's back, she hadn't really needed it in the long term, but she will definitely get a new outfit. And as for Toothless and Wintergale meeting... let's just say that Wintergale might be a little tough to impress.
Crystal12 (two-in-one reply to both of your reviews): Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked her introduction. And Elsariding on Wintergale's back during the battle, that definitely would be something awesome! Revise that, it will be awesome.
Vivian Wilder: I'm glad you like it and hope this chapter met your expectations as well. Thank you for your review!
Angryhenry: Neither of them. As I mentioned in another reply this morning, the kindred spirit is Wintergale. I hope you like the story, and thank you for reviewing!
P.S. 2: I forgot to ask, is any of you OUAT fans also a Fringe fan? Please let me know if you are, 'cause I want to celebrate with you the fact that ETTA BISHOP WILL BE ELSA! (Sorry, fanboy moment there.)