Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Kittykatpaws ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.

The fire had completely gone out when Anna woke up.

It was earlier than she usually rose, as evident by Hiccup still curled up sleeping across the cave. The whole cavern was filled with frigid, still air, hanging all around her and pricking her skin with ice shards. She shivered, pulling her blankets farther over her shoulders.

She wasn't sure what it was that had caused her body, normally so stubbornly refusing to be dragged out of sleep until the last possible second, to rouse itself this early. But she figured that if she had pulled herself out of the warm throes of sleep, there had to be a reason. And something about the twisting feeling in her stomach told her it wasn't a good one.

Anna crawled across the cave to where Hiccup was sleeping, his blankets skewed at a crooked angle and his body twitching with small shivers. She pulled his blankets back over him and added a new one, tucking them all in around his head so that he was completely covered again.

She wrapped one of Hiccup's heavier cloaks around her and stole out of the cave. Outside the sky was the milky gray of pre-dawn, and everything in the forest was coated in a thick layer of morning frost.

Everything was quiet. Too quiet.

It wasn't that Anna wasn't aware of the eerie silence that winter often brought. With most songbirds having already fled to someplace warmer and most animals curled tightly up in their burrows, it was expected that the forest would be quiet. However, something about the silence hanging over the trees seemed less like the absence of woodland creatures and more like any woodland creatures that were around were crouched in nooks and crannies and behind undergrowth, mouths tightly shut and frozen stiff with a sort of primal fear.

A universal primal fear that the presence of a massive number of only one species could cause.

The sharp crackle of a shoe crushing frost-covered leaves caused Anna to whip around. Footfalls hard and determined, Victoria was trudging out from behind a thicket of pine trees.

"Oh, there you are, Anna," she said, her voice like sour milk. Slowly, her thin lips curled up into an unsettling smile. "Thought you could hide away forever, did you? That's cute."

Anna involuntarily backed up toward the cave, shrinking into herself as guards and townspeople alike began to melt out from behind every conceivable place. Trees and bushes and undergrowth alike parted in the most unforeseen ways to reveal a vicious-looking mob with crossbows and pitchforks and spears and everything else Anna had been trying to forget running from.

"H—how did you find me?" she spluttered.

Victoria let out an airy laugh. "Oh, was it supposed to be hard? All we had to do was find all the burnmarks and scorched trees and then go from there! Not really hard to track down a bitch who leaves destruction everywhere she goes."

Anna gulped. She couldn't determine if Victoria was just being cruel or if she really had left an obvious trail of burned trees leading to the cave. She had always thought that her burning was sporadic enough so that it couldn't really be traced back to anywhere.

Maybe they don't know Hiccup's here.

When the sudden thought occurred to her, the steady terror that had been boiling up inside her suddenly fizzed away to give way to a new sense of purpose.

I can't let them get into that cave.

Whatever they tried to do to her, she had to protect Hiccup.

Victoria's face twisted in disgust. "You're like some sort of cockroach. You're out here exposed to god-knows-what, freezing and starving and having to fight off wild animals and all the like, but somehow you still just won't die. But there are ways to beat down even the most resistant of vermin, Anna."

The group began to advance on her, surrounding her in a semicircle with their bows drawn and their pitchforks raised. Anna slipped her gloves off and dropped them onto the frosty ground, feeling energy start to crackle through her fingertips.

"I said that if the elements couldn't snuff you out, I would have to do it myself," Victoria hissed. "And call me what you like, Anna, but I'm a woman of my word. You'll hardly be a danger to Arendelle anymore when I'm done with you."

"But I'm not a danger!" Anna said, looking at Victoria pleadingly in a last attempt to get the handmaiden to just leave her be. "I've been living out here so that if my powers get out of control, no one gets hurt. I'm staying away to keep all of you safe! I'm never coming back to the kingdom so I'll never hurt anyone, so why can't you just leave me alone?"

Of course, the part about never coming back to the kingdom wasn't entirely true, but Victoria didn't need to know that. Anna hoped she was a good enough actor to sound convincing.

"Oh, and we're just supposed to take your word for it?" Victoria spat. "How the hell are we supposed to trust that you're not planning on coming back and taking the kingdom by force? Ambushing us when we least expect it?"

Anna frowned, fear and despair starting to give way to genuine confusion. "Because why would I? Why would I want to go back to someplace where everyone wants me dead?"

"Well, it wouldn't surprise me," another voice growled. She recognized the head guard prowling toward her, crossbow raised. "You've always been jealous of the attention your sister got. You've always been jealous that she was destined for the throne and not you. I've seen how you sulked, how you shot your parents reproachful looks when they went into her room to talk to her instead of talking to you. If you can use this new power of yours to threaten the entire kingdom into permanently making you queen just when everyone thinks you're not a peril anymore, of course you will. Of course you will. I doubt an immature brat like you could think of a more efficient way to take over the kingdom even if you tried."

Anna stared at him with an utterly dumbfounded expression. "What the hell?"

Aungard had known her for years. When had she ever shown even the slightest interest in stealing Elsa's position? If anything, she had been constantly relieved that she would never have to be queen.

Victoria really must have done a number on him to have him thinking that.

Nonetheless, his testimony seemed to be more than enough to convince the other mob members. They continued to creep toward her, weapons raised and faces contorting in a hatred and rage she never would have fathomed possible seeing on the faces of her own subjects.

"Get her!" Victoria shrieked. In the next second, all hell broke loose.

Arrows flew at her from every direction. Anna ducked, thrusting her hands up and throwing two fireballs into the hoard of crossbow-equipped guards. They scrambled out of the way, crying out in pain as the fireballs singed by their arms.

A cluster of townspeople shrieked, spears and pitchforks raised to throw as they raced toward her. Dodging out of the way of more arrows, Anna formed a roaring wall of fire in front of them, towering high above their heads. They let out yelps of alarm and the leaves crackled as they stumbled away.

Some guards raised their bows and prepared to fire. Anna sent a spurt of fire over the ground, rippling hungrily around their feet and burning through the leather of their boots. They gasped and stumbled away, their aim botched and their arrows flying into the trees.

She was turning to send a wall of fire at another group of angry townspeople when an arrow whizzed up from behind. She barely had time to move away, and it lodged painfully in her arm. She let out a shriek. Another one lodged in her leg, and she nearly keeled over.

One shot to the heart or head and it's over, she realized, her stomach starting to lurch.

Several more crossbows flew at her. Trying to ignore the searing pain, she dodged and formed a semicircle of fire in front of her attackers. She pushed it back as far as she could, trying to make it higher and higher. She felt something inside her suddenly collapse, and the firewall fizzled out after a few seconds.

Anna hunched over, panting. She had only been fighting for a few minutes and she already felt drained.

Her attackers suddenly stopped in their tracks, their enraged expressions briefly giving way to confusion. Victoria let out an annoyed scoff, and Anna turned around.

Hiccup had emerged out of the cave, taking in the whole scene with a shell-shocked expression. Anna felt her stomach drop.

She had been hoping that upon hearing the commotion outside, Hiccup would be rightfully scared and hide himself away in the back of the cave until it was all over. No such luck.

"Who the hell is this?" Victoria asked scornfully.

As he drank in the entire situation and looked around at the guards and townspeople surrounding Anna, Hiccup's eyes darkened, his hands starting to curl into fists.

"Well, I know who you are," he growled. "I think the better question here is what the hell do you think you're doing to Anna?"

Victoria squinted at Hiccup, and her face twisted in sudden disgust as her violet eyes landed on a cluster of scale patches running down his face and trailing onto his neck and arms. "What's wrong with your face?"

Although his expression remained stony, Anna noticed Hiccup give the slightest of winces.

"Get away from her," he hissed. "All of you. She's had a hard enough time as it is without the lot of you coming in and being an enormous nuisance to us. She's not bothering any of you in the kingdom, so what do you want from her?"

Victoria bristled and let out a huff, seemingly very displeased with having her and her small, ragtag army delegated to an "enormous nuisance." Anna couldn't help but smirk.

"We've come to dispose of a danger to the kingdom!" Victoria snapped. "It's only a matter of time before she comes back and destroys us all, once she grows strong enough. And I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but if you care at all about people not being burned alive by this demon witch, you'll stay out of our way!"

Hiccup's dark green gaze trained itself right on Victoria's pale face, and his expression darkened. Several townspeople raised their spears and crossbows, preparing to attack Anna again.

"She's not a demon!" Hiccup roared.

As he ran at Victoria, Anna wasn't sure she had ever seen him transform so fast. His skin made gruesome ripping noises as his scales forced their way out and his claws tore free. He hunched over and was suddenly on all fours, face elongating into a snout. He parted his lips to show off an impressive array of knifelike teeth, pupils slitted and cold and unfeeling.

Even if his ferocity was for her sake, Anna felt herself starting to shake. She had never seen him like this, not even on his worst days. She had never seen such unchecked, overpowering…rage.

Instead of running over and mauling Victoria like she half-expected him to, Hiccup raced in Anna's direction. She subconsciously tensed up, but he stopped right beside her and wrapped his tail protectively around her. He whipped back and forth, hissing and snarling at any townsfolk who so much as took one step toward her. Despite herself, Anna straightened up a little with pride.

Victoria let out a brief shriek at the unexpected transformation, but her expression quickly returned to its default sneer as soon as the blood returned to her face.

"Oh, well isn't this the plot twist!" she said scornfully. "Here I was thinking that wretched dragon was going to flay you and have you for supper, but I come out here to find that you've found some sort of way to befriend the thing." She let out a dry laugh, and Anna's fingers curled into fists.

Victoria looked down at her purple-painted fingernails, starting to tap them idly. "Well, I wouldn't get too used to your good fortune, Anna. I've seen his type before. Weredragon. You think he's your friend now, but it's always only a matter of time before he gets a little too hungry and a little more dragon than human and all of the sudden you're just another piece of prey. You can only fight those killer instincts for so long! And given the state he's in right now, I'd give it…oh, I don't know…" Victoria clicked her tongue, scrutinizing Hiccup. "Another month maybe?"

Although Anna's skin began to grow cold, her face twisted in fury.

"Shut the hell up!" she snarled. "You don't know anything about him!"

Victoria's eyes darkened. "I know more than you would think," she growled.

Her tone suddenly grew light and cheerful, and she gave Anna one of those saccharine smiles that made her chest boil. "Anyway, luckily for you, I'm not about to let your dragon friend kill you. Because I don't have the patience to wait around that long."

She turned to the hesitant crowd. "Get them both," she spat.

Many of the townsfolk began to back away, visibly apprehensive about fighting a dragon. A few stayed in place, weapons tentatively raised, but they still looked uncertain.

"Oh, come on!" Victoria snapped. "Two of them against all of us? Besides, think of how much of a bounty there is on that dragon."

That seemed to get people's attention.

"And he's just as much the enemy as she is," she went on scathingly. "What's wrong with all of you? You weren't cowards before, coming all the way out here to take down the fire witch, but now you want to be? If not for the money, kill them for the kingdom!"

The fear paralyzing the group of townspeople slowly seemed to melt away, being replaced by the blinding rage of a mob as they looked from Hiccup to Anna and back again. Screaming and holding their weapons in the air, they charged like an imperial army.

All at once Anna was ducking and dodging arrows from every direction, creating spurts of fire in front of her in hopes of blocking peoples' vision. She sent fireball after fireball flying into the trees, saving herself from many an arrow when the guards holding the crossbows yelped and stumbled back just as they were about to shoot.

Hiccup, for his part, was on a rampage. He tore through the crowd of people, snatching up as many as he could get his jaws on and hurling them up against the frosted trees. From the glimpses Anna caught between incoming arrows and bursts of fire, it seemed like he was actually holding back a surprising amount—always throwing hard enough to cause significant damage, but never hard enough to kill. Nothing seemed to faze him though, the dragon-boy continuing to attack with everything he had in him even after some of the multitude of weapons being hurled at him began to pierce his skin and his scales slowly started to become stained with thick, dark blood.

Someone grabbed Anna's wrist from behind, yanking her around. She met the eyes of a furious screaming bearded man just in time for him to plunge his spear into her side. She screamed in pain, doubling over. Still holding onto her, he grappled her to the ground, raising his spear above her head and preparing to strike again.

With her free hand, Anna barely managed to create a stream of fire, sending it shooting into the man's face. As he screamed, she kicked him off of her. A couple of other civilians ran at her as she lay bleeding on the ground, but she reared up a wall of fire in front of them. She heard the whir of their spears sail past her, and managed to roll out of the way just in time.

She held a hand out and formed a burning disc, feeling the tiniest swell of pride at its neat, perfect rotundness as she tossed it at the nearest charging mob member. I guess I figured out how to make a fire disc after all!

Still clutching her bleeding side, she staggered to her feet, tossing fire discs all around her in a frenzy. No matter how many townspeople she hit or how many backed away from the fire, it always seemed like there were more coming from all sides. Her entire body was beginning to ache with pain and exhaustion.

How are there even this many people in Arendelle? she wondered irritably.

As her attacks grew slower and more people closed in on her, more and more blades and pitchforks began to graze her skin. She always managed to fend off her attackers with fireballs before they got too far, but the effort was becoming tiring and more and more blood was starting to trail across her skin and seep through her dress. The cold winter air seemed to pierce right into her cuts, making them feel like they were freezing from the inside out.

It reminded her a little too much of a less-than-pleasant experience she had had with that.

Anna's gaze strayed briefly over to Hiccup, and she let out a horrified whimper. Both of her friend's sides were completely covered in blood, arrows sticking out of his scales. He had been backed against a thick-set cluster of trees, surrounded by a semicircle of townspeople and guards. He was gnashing at them with his teeth and swinging at them with his long, spiked tail, but they had gotten much better at dodging and much handier at throwing their weapons.

He may have been massive and he may have been terrifying, but everything about his body was taut with exhaustion—just like hers.

A slow, horrifying thought suddenly dawned on Anna. They were losing. No matter how great and destructive their powers, they were still severely outnumbered. All the mob needed to do was wear them out with attacks until they were too exhausted to fight back.

During her brief moment of distraction, a rough hand grabbed Anna's wrist. Another curled around her other, and she flinched out of the way just in time to cause a burly man's knife to plunge into her shoulder instead of her neck. Wriggling violently, she managed to flip her palm toward one of her captors and send a stream of fire right at his arm. He screamed as it collided with him, leaving a black burnmark that slowly spread across his skin as the fire touched more and more of his flesh.

Anna was almost impressed with how much he let her burn him before he finally loosened his grip and she yanked herself free. She kicked her other captor in the shin as hard as she could. He keeled over, and she sent a shower of sparks over his exposed arm. He cried out and let go.

She was turning to shoot a fire disc at an approaching woman with a pitchfork when a strange hum made her pause briefly.

Before she had time to process what was happening, the hum escalated to a deafening drone before ending in a loud boom and a flash of light. All heads snapped around, looking toward the cluster of trees.

The neat semicircle had dispersed into two ragged lines, parted to reveal a glowing purple orb sticking out of the blackened ground. The townspeople were all staring at it with abject terror. The dragon, for his part, was looking at it with a different kind of horror.

It fizzed out in seconds, leaving all the leaves and dirt around it annihilated. Anna bit her lip.

Dragon fire…

It occurred to her that somehow, in all the weeks she'd lived with him, Anna had never seen Hiccup breathe fire like the dragons in the fairy tale books did. She had never given it a particularly lengthy amount of thought, concluding maybe it was only a myth that they did. It would also have explained why he wasn't able to easily start his own fires without her help. Hiccup didn't seem to like talking about his draconic abilities on more than a need-to-know basis anyways, so she hadn't pried into the issue.

Well, apparently he couldn't breathe fire, but he could breathe something much more dangerous. Some sort of plasma…

Suddenly, she had an idea.

While the mob was still gawking at the spot where the plasma ball had disappeared, Anna marched over to Hiccup and stood in front of him. She held her hands out above her head, turning to look at the dragon.

"Do that again," she commanded, starting to form a wall of fire above her head.

He grunted uncertainly, giving her a dubious look. With a sinking feeling, she wondered if maybe he didn't fully understand how he had done it.

"Please at least try?" she begged, giving him a plaintive look.

His whole body rippled and he gagged a few times, like he was dry-heaving. The screams of the mob picked up as they resumed charging, brief shock having finally passed. Anna tensed, squeezing her eyes shut but focusing herself to keep growing her fire wall bigger and bigger.

There was the sound of a hum behind her, and despite herself, she grinned. It grew louder and louder until something hit her firewall with incredible force, nearly causing her to topple over and lose her hold on it.

She looked up to see her fire seemed to have a new reflective sheen to it, purple sparks and veins rippling and interspersing through it. Her grin grew, and she stretched her firewall wider and wider.

Taking a step back, she let it touch down in front of her and start to curve over her and Hiccup's heads in a blazing orange ceiling. Although her hands were beginning to sting and ache from the effort, she didn't stop until she had gotten the fire-plasma mix to form a full dome around them.

The mob was now completely out-of-sight, but Anna could hear muffled gasps and screams. Despite herself, she felt a dark rush of satisfaction. Yeah, that's right!

"Ha!" she yelled out, to anyone on the other side of the fire forcefield who might happen to be listening. "What are you going to do about that?"

In response, she heard a defiant screech that was definitively Victoria's. Crisp footfalls over the charred ground, and the fire-plasma wall tore open briefly in places to reveal patches of pale skin and dark blue dress. A scream of pain, and Victoria leaped back.

"You…you witch!" she spat. "How are you doing that?"

A newfound energy suddenly coursing through her, Anna stood up straighter. She let fire stream out of her fingers like a fountain and mix into the forcefield, making it spit and crackle even louder.

"Go!" she roared, surprised by the force in her own voice. "Get out of here and don't come back. You're not welcome!"

Victoria scoffed. "Think you can hide behind that thing forever, do you? I'll wait. Your casting energy's not going to last all day."

Anna's lips curled up into a wicked grin. Her entire body felt like liquid; she had never felt so alive in her entire life.

Whatever was blazing through her, it wasn't going away anytime soon.

"Try me."

"You're going to sap all your energy on that," Victoria taunted. "And when it burns out, you'll be too weak to fight back. And your weredragon friend is as good as done for!"

Anger began to boil inside of her, and her voice raised to a resounding bellow again.

"Go home, Victoria!"

She wasn't sure how many minutes she stood there, fire shooting from her fingertips and waves of energy pulsing through every cell in her body. With each of Victoria's taunts the fire only seemed to come harder and faster, quickly replacing any piece of the wall that might have burned out. With every snide comment and cruel remark, with every torrent of rage that ripped through her, she only seemed to be growing stronger.

I could burn down this whole forest if I wanted to, she realized. I could close in on Victoria and burn her into a black husk before she could do anything. I could do that to all of them…

She could, but she wouldn't. Not unless they try to hurt Hiccup again…

After a few more failed attempts to get through the forcefield and a few more burned and mangled limbs, Victoria seemed to have finally had enough. She let out a contemptuous hiss.

"Fine, Anna. You win this round. But you best believe I'll be back for you. All of us will!"

"Good luck with that," Anna sneered.

Footsteps on leaves and groans of pain and the sheathing of various weapons signaled that the once-raging mob was now trudging back to Arendelle in a defeated trample. Victoria, for her part, was repeatedly cursing and muttering about all the things she was going to do to Anna and Hiccup the next time she saw them.

Once the sounds of the group had faded off far into the distance and the forest had returned to its usual winter stillness, Anna finally lowered her arms. Following some sort of instinct, she spread her palms out and breathed in as deep as she could.

Inhale…take everything back in…

She looked down and felt her knees weaken with relief. Just as she had hoped, the fire forcefield was breaking apart into curled ribbons and slithering back into her fingertips. She felt a sharp sting whenever a purple spark of plasma touched her, but the pain was brief. When the fire dome was completely gone, she keeled over, panting but grinning.

So I guess I did learn how to do the fire-sucking-in thing!

It had seemed like a longshot, but it had worked. The only trace of the fiery dome was a prefect black ring cutting across the leaves and skirting past the cluster of trees.

She looked behind her to see Hiccup had shifted back into human form. To her dismay he looked even worse off than he had as a dragon, with the arrows lodged in his side seeming to go much deeper and the blood pooling on his chest soaking through his clothes. He was curled up in the fetal position, panting and letting out tiny cries of pain whenever he tried to move.

"Hiccup!" she yelped, racing over to him and kneeling down beside him. She turned him onto his back, giving a brief apology as he let out a gasp of pain. She rested a concerned hand on his face, wiping away a trail of blood seeping out of a cut on his cheek. Her voice came out in a frantic ramble.

"Hiccup, how bad did they hurt you? Are you okay? Oh, you have to be okay! Do you need me to find someone to help you? I'm sure we can find someone! I'll—I'll get the doctor from town! Anyone! How do I stop the bleeding? Do you know some place I can take you for healing spells? Oh, please tell me you're going to be okay!"

She started to feel herself choking on her words, and held back a sob. He couldn't die like this. Not out in the dead of winter, not at the hands of a bunch of cruel people who were scared of anything they didn't understand, not because of Victoria. He deserved so much better than that.

And she couldn't lose him without telling him…

"Anna."

Her thoughts were interrupted as he turned to look at her, innocent dark green eyes gazing right up into hers. Her entire body seemed to freeze, suddenly rooted to the spot as her breath caught in her throat.

"Y—yes?"

He grinned up at her. "That was awesome."

She gave him a puzzled look. That wasn't what she had been expecting.

"Um…what was awesome?"

"That whole…" He waved his hand around, abstractly gesturing to nothing in particular. "Fire…forcefield…thing. I had no idea you could do that."

She smiled meekly. "Me neither. Until a few minutes ago."

"You know, we really should combine our powers more often if it's going to—ah!"

"Hiccup!" He suddenly clutched at his side, face screwing up in pain.

"Oh, right, we should get rid of these," she muttered, fingering the end of one of the arrows. "And stop you from—"

She cut herself off abruptly as her eyes trailed down to the ground around him. Every inch of her body abruptly stiffened.

From a distance, they'd just looked like dark stains in the snow. Alarming enough, but nothing more than bloodstains from open wounds. But upon closer inspection, they looked almost…purple.

Slowly she looked up, scanning his battered and bleeding body. She hadn't noticed before—too caught up in panic, she suspected—but his blood wasn't just dark red, as she'd originally figured. When she looked a little more discerningly, it was more of a dark boysenberry tint—red with a distinctive purple hue.

"Your blood, it's…" She trailed off helplessly, her brain no longer able to keep up with the number of concerning things happening.

"Currently gushing out of me?" he finished, raising a weary eyebrow at her. "Yes, we should probably do something about that."

"No, it's…the wrong color…"

She held up her blood-streaked arm next to his to compare, and he followed her gaze. He winced—whether it was from the lingering pain of the arrows or noticing the disparity she had pointed out she wasn't sure.

"Yeah, that figures," he sighed, voice resigned. "Doesn't surprise me that damned dragon bite messed with my bloodstream, too. Just another one of those random biology changes. I guess when you have to live with this mess for five years, you don't notice gradual things like your blood changing color."

His frown deepened as he looked over himself, mouth twisting in slight disgust. Anna felt her stomach begin to gnaw with guilt, and suddenly wanted to slap herself. Given the state they were in, the last thing Hiccup needed was something else to worry about.

"Well, no matter," she said softly. "It's probably not a big deal. Just an…odd little dragon biology fluke. Don't stress about it—I think the bigger priority is probably making sure you don't bleed out."

"You too," he grunted, glancing at her side. She looked down to where her own knife wound had left a trail of blood across the leaves. In her concern for Hiccup, she had admittedly forgotten about it, blocking out the ever-present piercing pain in her side.

"Oh! What, this? Psh!" She snorted dismissively, putting on her best nonchalant grin as sharp, stinging pain from the wound continued to cycle through her. "This is nothing! Nothing I can't handle, anyway." She squared up her shoulders and stuck her nose in the air proudly as another wave of agony swept through her.

"You got stabbed," Hiccup said dryly.

"Well, you got shot. Like, 8 times!" she retorted.

"Just…" He let out another groan as he slowly tried to sit up. "Get us back to the cave. There's some gauze and bandages in there we can use."

She gave him an incredulous look "You have medical supplies somewhere in that big pile of yours?!"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, obviously. You honestly think this is the first time I've had to deal with this? I'm a creepy dragon-monster; people want to impale me with sharp things kind of a lot."

"Oh." Anna suddenly felt royally stupid. "That, uh…that actually makes a lot of sense."

She reached toward him, extending a hand to help him up, when his eyes suddenly widened in fear.

"N—no, Anna, don't touch me!" he yelped out, jerking away from her.

"What?" She stared at him, utterly baffled.

"Look…the…weredragon thing." He took a shaky breath. "I'm not…entirely sure how it's transferred. I think through bites, but in case it's blood-related, well…"

He shook his head rapidly, expression becoming frantic.

"You—you can't let any of my blood get in your cuts. Or in your mouth, or…or anywhere in your body. You just can't. Please. I just don't…" His voice shook a little as he looked up at her desperately. "I don't want you to get stuck like me."

Anna nodded slowly as his concern fully sunk in. "Okay, so…how can I bandage you up if I can't touch you, then?"

"I don't know, just…" He waved a hand around vaguely as he tried to think of something. "Go get one of my cloaks and cover yourself in it. Put your gloves back on. Only touch me with skin you've covered. Okay? Then you can help me back in and we can get patched up."

"Okay." Anna glanced over to where her gloves had been trampled into the snow. Despite herself, she smirked as a sudden thought occurred to her.

"I hope my sister's not gonna be too mad I'm getting bloodstains all over her spare gloves."

After a moment he smiled back, letting out a couple of pained chuckles. "I think she'll have slightly bigger concerns the next time she sees you."

"Anyways, um…a cloak. Right."

Anna shakily got to her feet, wincing as her side screamed in protest. She stumbled over to the crumpled blue shape of her gloves and snatched them up, doing her best to block out the searing pain that rippled through her every step of the way.

In the cave she yanked one of Hiccup's more tight-fitted cloaks over her head, briefly checking that it covered her arms. It was going to be completely ruined and blood-splattered before the day was through, she was sure, but for now it was doing its job well enough. Anna hurried back outside, relieved to see the purple-red stain on the snow at least hadn't grown much in size.

She reached out and laced her gloved hand tightly around Hiccup's, pulling him gently up. He let out a couple of groans and yelps of pain, body stiffening as he tried to keep from moving around too much. She wrapped her arm tightly around his waist, letting him lean practically his full weight on her shoulder as she helped him back to the cave.

As he limped along, face continually screwing up with pain and wounds leaving a blood-dotted trail behind them, Anna felt the worry that Hiccup had temporarily managed to stave off with his wry humor returning.

"But you're going to be okay, right? You've gotten through this kind of thing before? Like, even worse and been okay? It's not as bad as it looks? You're not going to die? You can't die!" Her voice took on a desperate tone, and she looked at him pleadingly.

"Well, it's always a bargain with this kind of thing," Hiccup said bluntly. "Infection can get you just as easily as blood loss can." Upon seeing Anna's eyes widen in horror, he quickly put on a nonchalant grin. "But out of all the attacks I've had to deal with, well…this one's not very high on the list. I mean come on, were they even trying?"

He let out a gasp of pain as one of the arrows sticking out of him brushed up against a tree, but his grin didn't falter.

"Nah, I've gotten through way worse," he went on. "Don't worry yourself over me."

Anna set him down on the cave floor, scurrying over to his pile of furs and other odds and ends and shuffling rapidly through it. Hiccup called out to her to look for a box, and luckily it wasn't long before she stumbled across it. Small and wooden, and filled to the brim with all sorts of bandages and tiny bottles looking to contain all manner of potions and medicines.

She had to wonder what they all were and how he'd managed to collect all of them, but that was a question for another time.

She grabbed the box and crawled back over to Hiccup, eyeing his broken form uneasily. She reached tentatively toward one of the arrows and gave him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, this is going to sting," she murmured. "Probably a lot. But I don't think you want me to leave these in here."

"That wouldn't be ideal," he agreed.

She plucked out the arrows one-by-one, flinching and apologizing every time Hiccup let out a cry of pain. When they were finally all out in a bloody pile, she leaned back and reached for the gauze, briefly looking at him again.

Something about seeing him hunched there, bloody and bruised and dejected and completely exhausted, made something inside of her break.

She surged forward, wrapping him in a crushing hug before she could think better of it. He stiffened in shock. "Auck, Anna! That hurts!"

"I'm sorry, I…" Her eyes grew wet with tears, and she started to choke on her words again. "I was so scared for you, Hiccup! I thought they were going to kill you right in front of me, and I wouldn't be able to stop them! You looked so hurt, and I was so worried, and I thought you were dying and…and I can't lose you, not like that, and I was just…just so scared! Please, just…" Her voice cracked. "Just promise me you're going to be okay. Promise me you won't ever leave me."

She wondered if he would get annoyed with her—Anna, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm going to be fine?!—or perhaps chastise her for not being more careful to shield any potential open cuts on her face. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back even tighter, burying his nose in her hair.

"I promise," he murmured. "Well, at least…I promise as best I can. It's not entirely within my control." At this, she let out a displeased grunt.

"But I promise to really, really try for you," he amended. "I'll be fine. And I promise I'll do my very best to stay with you."

She held onto him even tighter, some part of her scared that as soon as she let go, he was going to dissolve into nothingness.

They stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in each other impossibly tightly, hearts still pounding slightly from the fight as morning light began to pour into the cave. Anna held her tears back at first but they eventually managed to seep out, shaken from her with quiet sobs and mixing and swirling into the blood on Hiccup's still-exposed skin.

"You'd better not die on me," she said finally through clenched teeth.

"I won't," he said softly, although the ever-present teasing air quickly found its way back into his voice. "Although you providing me with some bandages and not letting me bleed to death would be a tremendous help with that."

Hello again!

Oh no! An angry mob has found our favorite shipping in the woods! Well, on the upside…time to finally put all that training to good use, amirite?

Man, idk why but combat chapters are always hard for me to write/get invested in. I guess it's hard to write tension when you already know how everything is going to turn out lmao

Like there's no suspense for me, I already know how all this battle shit plays out

HA I remember writing this chapter while confessing my feelings to a dude in college over text what, like…3 years ago? Man, time flies. But I was literally hiding in my dorm room closet with my laptop and my phone was under my bed several feet away because I was THAT terrified of his response XD Of course he turned me down but eh, it was nice to at least get it out.

Man I am going to have SO much fun exploring Anna's ah…DARKER nature in this ehehehe! I mean, Hans can certainly testify that she don't take anyone's shit, but like…mess with or threaten someone she loves? Hoo BOY she is NOT so innocent and wholesome anymore. Honestly if Anna hadn't been freezing to death, you bet your ass Hans would've ended up in the local Arendelle hospital after what he tried to do to Elsa. But Anna is overprotective as all HELL and she absolutely would not go easy on someone trying to hurt someone she cares about, so much so that I can very much see her becoming the She Who Fights Monsters type eventually. We shall have to see!

Oho, what's this? Hiccup CAN breathe a very hot substance after all? What, you thought I'd just forgotten to address that Hiccup, a weredragon, can't actually breathe fire as a dragon? XD Ohhhhh no, I've been VERY aware of that little fact. There's definitely a reason he doesn't use his plasma ability very often—I've kind of hinted at it and implied some things, but it's purposely been left a bit ambiguous for now. I wonder if any of y'all can guess what it is!

Hiccup and Anna really do be like "WITH OUR POWERS COMBIIIIIIIIINED" anime-style and I regret absolutely nothing XD I'm, uh…now knowledgeable enough in gas chemistry and physical science to know if fire and plasma could actually combine like that, but…fuck it, it looked cool XD

I have a theory that I straight-up refuse to ever let go that literally NOTHING can kill Hiccup's sarcasm like he can be lying there bleeding out and dying and he will STILL make snarky comments about it, in fact he will probably make more and then continue to make smart remarks all throughout receiving medical care

(It's also probably a good thing he does this because rest assured that is pretty much the only thing stopping Anna from having a full-blown panic attack here and being rendered totally incapable of helping either of them for a hot minute)

Also, HAPPY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO THIS STORY! Man…did I really start posting it a year ago? That was…an outrageously fast year O_o I guess time honestly DOES seem to move faster once you're out of school, since you have no school years as a frame of reference for stuff happening. Anyways, to celebrate this fic's "posting birthday," I've made a moodboard to go with it and posted it on my tumblr, Hiccanna-Tidbits! Please go check it out, I'm very pleased with it and it's very spooky indeed, in the best possible way!

ALSO, to my ever-faithful reviewer Anonymoose, thank you so much for all of your detailed reviews! I appreciate you stopping by to still put a word in on this story, even after a year. And fear not—there WILL be a happy ending eventually! I absolutely loathe depressing endings, especially ones tacked on for the sake of "ooooh but it's more realistic!" or some bullshit cuz like brO this is FANFICTION you think I came here to see my OTP suffer greatly and then continue to suffer with no end in sight? Absolutely NOT if my OTP can't run off into the sunset in canon, they damn well will in my fanfiction XD

With all that said though…things will get worse before they get better for our favorite awkward kids D:

See y'all in December! Get ready for some FLUFF because we gotta balance all this angst out, amirite?