Authors Note: Hello everyone, I hope you all had a nice winter and spring. And if you did not, then perhaps this chapter will perk you up. This one took about five months to write and edit. I want to thank Noctus Fury who was my Beta Reader. Noctus Fury pointed out my errors, edited and gave suggestions on how to improve my story.

This chapter does contain some language. Nothing too bad, but just a heads up.

The future of this story looks really good to me, I have written the outline for this story in full. I have even written the ending, whether it be six or eight chapters ahead I don't know, but it will all come out the same. I hope you all will still be reading this four years from now. The future holds more romance, wars, marriages, and political intrigue from new and old enemies. The best is yet to come.

Important Note: this will be the last T-rated chapter. The next chapter will be M-rated for it will contain mature content, such as detailed adult scenes and adult language. If you haven't already be sure to put this story on your alerts, favorite it or change your filters for the home site of HTTYD & Frozen Crossovers.

Thank you for your time and enjoy the next chapter of An Arranged Life.

Disclaimer: I do not own Disney's: Frozen or Dreamworks: How To Train Your Dragon


Chapter Seventeen

Blue

Hearing a voice, she recognized as her sister's caused Elsa to pause at the top of the stairwell. As she glanced down, Elsa noticed that Anna's appearance had changed from her coronation dress to an outfit with a dark blue skirt, black boots, a light blue long-sleeved blouse, a magenta cape, bonnet with a matching cap and it looked well on her, to say the least. "When did she change?" Elsa thought as she called out to her younger sister.

Anna's head snapped up and a look of amazement swept over her face. "Oh right, I changed my outfit too."

"Elsa you look different… a good different." Anna said as she caught herself from nearly falling. "This place is amazing, can I come in?"

Elsa looked around, "Anna you are already in, you can…" A thought crossed her mind, "wait a moment Hiccup and Toothless are in the room upstairs, if Anna were to see them, she would be mad and scared, to say the least."

"Leave." Elsa said to Anna, a look of hurt crossed Anna face as she heard that word again.

Not backing down, Anna moved up one step of the staircase, whereas Elsa took one step back.

The front door made a sweeping sound as a small snowman made his way leisurely into the greeting area, "Times up, who wants to play hide and seek?"

Elsa looked down at the small intruder, it was a walking and talking snowman?

"Impossible, it reminds me ofOlaf?" She asked out loud.

"Yes?" He asked back.

"Y-You're alive? How?"

Olaf cocked his head to the side like a dog. "You created me last night, don't you remember?"

"Many things happened last night, many things to say the least." Elsa said as she looked down at the two. An uncomfortable silence fell over the three, which was only interrupted by the door opening again to reveal a blonde-haired man, who looked to be a logger or ice breaker from his apparel. Those men were very important in her kingdom as the main sources of exports, wood, and ice respectively.

"Is there anyone else outside my home?" Elsa asked the three growing slightly frustrated by all the interruptions.

The man merely scratched his head at being addressed in a non-polite manner. "My reindeer, but I believe he will stay out…" but before he could finish his sentence said reindeer walked in as the door swung open for a fourth and hopefully final time.

"…side, well never mind. We are all here unless you created more snowmen we do not know about Your Majesty." He said as he bowed down in respect.

"And what is your name and your occupation?" Elsa asked in a formal tone, even though she had personally given up being queen, she found herself slipping back into that role; all those years of education and training were making themselves known.

"My name is Kristoff Eindride, I am a Sámi outdoorsman who works as an ice harvester in the summer, Your Majesty."

Elsa looked down at him and Anna for a few seconds, "And what are you doing with my sister Mr. Eindride?"

Kristoff looked at Anna for a second then looked back at his queen. "Your sister hired me to take her up the North Mountain. Our trip led to the destruction of my sled to which she offered to replace, and she also promised a small bag of coin too." He said as he glanced at Anna, who ducked her head in embarrassment at the mention of the sled.

"I see, Mr. Eindride I can do nothing about your sled for now, but I will offer you five pounds of gold coins if you take my sister back down to the castle. From there you will go to the treasury and receive your reward. Do you agree to my terms?" Elsa asked as she eyed the four.

"I do Your Majesty. And thank you." Kristoff turned to Anna and waited for her to move.

"What, that's it? You are not going to help me and convince Elsa to come back?" Anna asked incredulously at Kristoff.

"We are not friends, you hired me as your guide and I have guided you here, now I will guide you back to the castle. Plus, I need the money." He admitted, shrugging sheepishly.

"Well, I'm not leaving until I talk to my sister." Anna said as she looked back at Elsa, who was not where she was, instead she was climbing back up the staircase to the upper level.

"Oh, no, not again." Anna said as she quickly raced up the steps with Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven in tow. Moving up the stairs and turning right she found Elsa on a balcony overlooking the mountain range.

"Elsa, please come back to the castle. You need to fix Arendelle." Anna begged as she moved forward.

Elsa was growing increasingly frustrated at her wishes being ignored.

"Anna my place is here now, where I can longer hurt those I love. And you can rule over Arendelle now; you are a princess after all. Arendelle will be alright under your stead."

Anna looked down sheepishly, then back up, trying to think of a way to tell her sister that she had caused an early winter to descent upon Arendelle.

"About that, when you ran across the fjord, it caused all Arendelle to freeze over, it began snowing over the capital and none of the ships can leave. It is winter again; you need to return with us and fix this." Anna said as she moved forward but stopped when Elsa left out a gust of cold wind toward the four and pushed them back slightly.

"Whoa, where did that wind come from?" Kristoff asked looking around for the source.

"I told you. My sister has ice powers." Anna said pointedly.

Kristoff looked back at Elsa and his eyes widened. "I thought you were kidding, but now I can see you were telling the truth. Well, that is an interesting family ability." Kristoff's eyes went back to Anna. "Do you have any special powers?" Anna looked down at her hands and back up at Kristoff.

"No, I have no special powers or abilities, I'm just ordinary. I'm just a girl who loves her sister and wants to help her." Anna said sadly as she cast a glance at Elsa.

Elsa felt an emotional knife lodge inside her at that remark, but the more she thought about it the more she thought about what Anna said referring to Arendelle. She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at the capitol below, which she could barely make out, but true to Anna's word it was covered in snow and thick clouds. In fact, not a green forest tree could be seen, everything was covered in snow and the fjord and ocean to a certain point were covered in ice.

Her people were going to freeze because of her. It was July, and no one was prepared for winter. It was all her fault and she didn't know what to do. Her people must hate her now and to return would only cause them to lash out at her for their plight that she had caused. But maybe if she stayed here, with Hiccup and Toothless, maybe the storm would go away and then she could live in Berk with the Hooligan Tribe who treated her better than most (except for Snotlout and Astrid). "It could work- it has to work." Elsa muttered to herself, quickly pacing back and forth between the middle of the room and the balcony.

Seeing a chance to help her sister Anna moved in, moving quietly till she has directly behind her. "Elsa, please you need to come back and fix this, we need to…" Anna said as she placed her hand on Elsa's shoulder.

"I said NO!" Not expecting contact of any kind, Elsa whirled around and released her powers on her sister. Anna was thrown back into Kristoff, who both collapsed and skidded across the icy floor.

Seeing Anna on the floor caused a painful memory to resurface- the night she caused Anna to lose part of her memory. She did it again… she hurt Anna, her own sister.

She really was a terrible queen . . . and sister; it hadn't been a week and she already allowed her powers to not only harm Anna and the delegates but endangered her own people and froze her kingdom into an ice-and-snow-locked-tundra. She deserved, no, needed to stay away from her — from Arendelle — and live in this castle for her and Anna's own wellbeing.

First Kristoff got up and was flanked by Sven and Olaf. He then helped Anna up, who clutched her chest in pain. "Anna, we need to go. It is clear your sister does not want to come down from this place. We should leave." Kristoff whispered to her.

"No." Anna protested. "I'm not leaving unless Elsa comes with us. She needs to…"

"Enough Anna! Mr. Eindride is correct, you all should leave." Elsa cast her gaze at Olaf who looked at her with big black sad pupils, his mouth was even quivering. "Olaf, you can stay if you want."

At the mention that Elsa was trying to cast her away, but was willing to let the snowman she had built stay, the pain in her chest increased.

Olaf for his part was torn, "Should I stay with mom or should I stay with Anna, Sven, and that reindeer?" He thought for a moment, deciding to stay with Anna and the others, seeing as that Anna needed a friend.

"Elsa, I beg you! You need to come with us and fix Arendelle." Anna voiced growing increasingly agitated at being ignored.

Elsa for her own part was becoming angry as well, and it showed. Her powers were slowly starting to swirl around her feet and the temperature in the room had dropped. "I said 'no'. Do not make me say it again!" Elsa said in a loud determined voice, trying to restrain her powers from lashing out for the third time.

"You can say it all day and night, but I am not leaving without you! Even if I have to drag you back to the…" Anna tried to say but was interrupted by a loud crash and ice sliding on the floor past her and toward Elsa.

Turning around she saw a large black creature destroy the doorway it was apparently hiding behind. Moving into the open room, she saw it was a dragon. A mythical creature she read about in old books and even heard about from the occasional maid, who themselves heard about it from old sailors who sailed North. But she thought they were just creating stories to tell their children about to keep them entertained while they were away. She never truly believed they were real. But here one was slowly moving toward her. She willed her body to move, but her feet did not respond.

She cast a glance toward Kristoff, and his eyes were big as teacups. But unlike her, his body was slowly moving to stand in front of her as his hand drew out his ice pick.

Toothless for his own part, looked at the four newcomers and then at Elsa and sniffed the air.

"Fear, anger and salt…" He gazed down at the blonde-haired man who drew out a sharpened object as he slowly approached. "I must protect my brothers' mate from these people." His eyes turned to slits as he moved to sit on his haunches behind Elsa and drew his tail and wing to wrap around her in a protective posture. His head moved to the right side of Elsa's and he opened his mouth to show his teeth with steam flowing over them and out into the cold air.

Elsa turned and gazed up at Toothless who continued to stare down at the four and felt a small warmth flow through her at the feeling of having someone willing to fight, kill and possibly even die for her. Usually, she only felt this way when Hiccup was around, but now seeing his dragon do the same, she felt a little better at knowing Hiccup was indeed safe when he was not with her behind the dozens of guards and tall walls.

"Anna, Kristoff, and Sven I think it time you left. Toothless is here, and from his posture, he agrees with me that you need to leave. Please go and don't come back." Elsa motioned toward the door with her head seeing that most of her body was safely behind Toothless' wing. Toothless let out a snort, as if agreeing with Elsa.

Kristoff, for his part, drew Sven close and pushed him toward the doorway, the sounds of Toothless breathing and Sven's hooves clacking against the ice floor were the only ones in the room.

"Elsa, I know you are scared right now, but you are acting based on fear and need to calm down and come home." Anna pleaded and reached out toward her sister, ignoring the fact that a dragon was in-between them.

"Anna, I am home." Elsa said sadly as she shot a mixture of ice and snow at the floor between Toothless' wing and tail. The mixture swirled around till it grew into a hulking snowman nearly five meters tall and two meters wide; his fingers, teeth, knees, elbows, and back were covered in ice shards, that looked to be sharp as knives. The rest of him was thick snow and his eyes were like pits but with no bottom, instead, they were glowing blue in anger.

Moving forward he swept all four of them up in his hands. Two gasps were the only sounds to escape Anna and Kristoff as the massive snowman moved out of the room and from Elsa could see down the staircase.

Letting out a breath of air that she was holding in she fell back onto Toothless' raised knee and rested her head against his side. "Thank you Toothless." Elsa patted his side and gave a tearful smile. Toothless let down his wing unfurled his tail from around her and nuzzled his cheek against Elsa's head in acknowledgment.

After a few moments, she heard someone whimper and looked to see Hiccup limping into the room, clutching his side. "Hiccup!" Elsa moved off Toothless and ran toward him who collapsed into her arms causing her to fall to the ground, but a small patch of snow stopped them from getting hurt. Her powers seemed to act on their own when she was about to be hurt.

"Hiccup! Wha—"

"Elsa, I heard everything." Hiccup, his voice firm. He looked like he was in great pain. "What have you done? You hurt Anna again and possibly caused you to lose her for good this time. We must…" He tried saying but a wave of pain racked his body, he tried speaking but was interrupted when they heard a faint "Don't come back!"

A few moments later, the downstairs door opened, and the behemoth snowman came back into the room. Hiccup drew his inferno from his waist holster, Toothless jumped in front of them and let out a warning roar as he glowed blue, ready to attack if need be.

"Stop!" Elsa yelled and everyone halted their movements. "Toothless, he is a creation. He is my protector." Elsa looked up at her hulking snowman who was eying the black dragon with anger, "Your name is Mund'r."

The massive snowman looked at his mother. "Mund'r?" it asked questioningly, testing its new name.

Elsa nodded and looked around the room. "Everyone in this room is a friend, and you will protect them from harm, understood?" Mund'r nodded in acknowledgment. "Good, now gently take Hiccup into the next room and lay him on the bed. Then go outside and prevent anyone from coming in."

Mund'r did as he was told by retracting his sharp ice shards back into his snow body and gently took Hiccup from Elsa's arms and laid him on the bed with Toothless and Elsa following close behind. "Thank you Mund'r." Elsa whispered as he moved out into the hall.

"Yes, mother." She heard him say as he moved down the staircase and closed the door behind him.

"'Mother'… I can create life without the need for Hiccup. No, that is cheating and against the way of creation and life itself. But…" She thought as she looked down at her hands, "I have that ability if need be."

"Elsa, what happens now?" Hiccup wheezed out as he clutched his side, looking down she noticed there was blood flowing past his fingers, he had ripped his stitches. Moving toward his satchel and retrieving some supplies she sowed back up the wound and put on a fresh set of bandages. Taking a rag, she willed some snow into a bowl then had it melt down to water. Then, soaking some water into the rag she brought it against his face to cool him, noticing he had a fever. Folding the rag into a square she placed it on his forehead and took the remnants of the bowl and brought it to his lips. "Drink." Hiccup did as he was told, after a few gulps, he opened his eyes and looked at his fiancée.

"Elsa, what do we do?" He asked repeating himself.

Elsa looked out the large window in the room at the swirling clouds outside. "I don't know, Hiccup, I just don't know."

Taking some time to think, she came up with an answer. "Maybe we can fly to Berk and we can live there, we can raise a…" Elsa said before looking back to Hiccup to notice he was out cold.

"…Family." she finished. She then turned to the Night Fury. "Toothless, no matter what happens, protect Hiccup. I will do my best, but if something happens to me, get Hiccup out of here." She said with determination and Toothless nodded in agreement.

Standing up and moving to retrieve her cloak. It must've fallen to the ground when Hiccup had thrown it off him. It was then she noticed some small holes in the bottom of the cloak. She could barely get her pinky through and looked around to what could have caused the holes. "My ice maybe…?" She said to herself as she looked at the trash pile and saw the wooden pins, grabbing one she raised it to the hole, and it was a perfect match.

Realization crossed her face as her mind raced back to the castle hallway when Hiccup had grabbed her. She caused this. When she whipped around on Hiccup, she had shot a gust of wind and inadvertently the wooden pins that were holding her clock up into his side.

Dropping the cloak and the pins, she collapsed to the ground and let out a cry, "I…I nearly murdered the love of my life, all because of these damn powers." One trembling hand raked through her platinum hair while the other covered her mouth to prevent her from waking Hiccup with her crying. The tears flowed out of her eyes and over hand then fell to the ground turning into ice droplets. The thought of Hiccup lying in a pool of his own blood that she had caused was too much for her as she cast her eyes down at her hands which were covered in Hiccups blood.

Another cry escaped her as she noticed that his blood was on her face and possibly in her hair, she ran out of the room into her large open balcony and released all the emotions she was keeping in. After a few moments ice covered the room in sharp shards and icicles with Elsa laying in the middle weeping, a small dusting of snow coated her. She felt a large presence behind her and looked up to see Toothless watching over her with a sad expression on his face.

Moving onto her knees before him, she bowed her head in shame. "Hiccup nearly died because of me! He will hate me, and so will you." Toothless let out a snort in annoyance, as he moved forward and swept Elsa into his chest with his arms holding her in place as if hugging her.

"But… But…I" Toothless just nuzzled his face into hers, he crooned as if saying "everything will be alright, it was an accident." Tears rolled down her face as she wrapped her arms around Toothless' neck. "Thank you Toothless, you are an amazing dragon and… friend."

The two stayed that way for some time before she fell asleep in Toothless wings. The dragon gently laid down on his side and wrapped a wing around her shielding her from the cold. He, too, closed his eyes, at let himself catch some much-needed rest.


Many miles away, and hundreds of feet down, Anna's horse finally came back to the capital, and ran past a pair of royal guardsmen into the city center, only to be stopped by Prince Hans.

"Whoa, calm down there. It's okay." Prince Hans said soothingly to the frightened horse, who instantly settled down. Seeing Anna, not on top of the horse meant that either she had fallen off or was possibly knocked off. Either way, she needed help.

"Princess Anna is in trouble! I am putting a search party together, and request volunteers." Prince Hans voiced with determination to the townsfolk and Royal Guardsman around him.

Immediately several hands shot up, eager to save their princess. "I volunteer my services." Many men said at once.

"I'll volunteer two men, my Lord." The Duke of Weselton voiced to the back of Hans who was talking to one of the Guardsman. In a lower tone of voice, he said to Francis and Erik his true intentions. "If you should encounter the queen, you will dispatch her and bring this winter to a permanent end, do you understand?" Both men nodded in understanding, this was not their first foray into this kind of work. Being bodyguard to the Duke brought many privileges and duties, one being to dispatch political rivals and enemies. It was dirty work, but it paid very well.

After a few minutes, fresh horses, supplies, and weapons were brought out to the volunteers. Taking a moment to tighten a sword to his side, Prince Hans looked to his side at the two men the Duke volunteered. From what he could manage the taller man with the mustache was named Erik and the younger looking one was Francis. If he had to guess, Francis was the protégé of Erik. But he did not know for sure and was only guessing at what their history was. As Erik adjusted his uniform around him, he could see a smaller version of a crossbow attached to his side. Those kinds of weapons were more for assassinations than general defense.

"Perhaps the Duke will have his men create an opportunity for me, that way I can become the white knight Arendelle needs and be one step closer to ruling this kingdom." Hans thought with a small smile.

After climbing onto his assigned horse, he looked around and gave a signal for the other riders to follow him out of the capitol and up the mountain.


Day turned to night as the rescue volunteers followed the horse tracks, sled indentations and human footprints to the highest slope of the highest mountain in the region, coincidentally named the 'North Mountain'.

Looks of awe and amazement fell upon the men's faces as they realized a literal ice palace was seated just under the top of the mountain. Not only was there an ice palace, but there was a chasm that served as a moat to top off the checklist for makings of a castle. An ice staircase was conveniently located over the chasm for easy access to the front door, only a large snow boulder prevented a perfect image of a palace.

"Queen Elsa is this your doing?" The Prince pondered in his mind.

Prince Hans moved forward and guided his horse to stop in front of everyone, quickly swinging his body off the saddle and jumping to the ground, he made a motion for an announcement. "We are here to locate Princess Anna, be on alert. And if Queen Elsa is here no harm is to come to her, understand?"

"Yes, Sir." All the men except Erik and Francis voiced, the latter giving each other a knowing glance.

With one hand gripping his sword and the other guiding his horse, Prince Hans walked toward the stairwell.

Suddenly, the snow boulder grew a body and revealed itself to be a giant snowman. The Guardsmen quickly jumped from their horses and created a semi-circle to contain the beast. Prince Hans, who was closest, ducked his head as the creature tried to swipe him off the slope of the mountain. Rolling back to avoid another swipe, the volunteers released their volley of lances into the arm and side of the snowman. Erik and Francis fired their crossbows for good measure.

Mund'r, fearing damage, brought his arm up to shield his face. When he felt the pin-pricks of the metal into his arm, he looked at them and back at the perpetrators.

Narrowing his eyes, Mund'r let out a massive roar, he allowed his ice claws and sharpened teeth to extend out from his skin and jaw, respectively.

The men who had fired their weapons felt their eyes twitch and their hearts sink, seeing that their efforts had no effect on the ice beast. A few voiced their concern, "Well… damn."

Mund'r looked at the two closest men and then back at his weapon infested arm, he set his jaw and backhanded the two, throwing them into a snow wall. A few Guardsmen moved to cover the two fallen men by throwing another volley of lances and gaining Mund'r attention.

Elsa was awakened by a muffled roar from outside her palace, jumping to her feet she ran to Hiccup's room to check on him. Still out cold, she raised her hand to his forehead. She drew back in a gasp; he had a fever and his wound was swollen. "But how is it infected? I rinsed his wound and applied alcohol." Then a thought struck her. "Could the string be dirty?" Checking the stitches, she saw that they did, in fact, have dirt, hair and small pieces of things she did not know the name of. "In my haste, I guess I didn't check the cleanliness of the string or the satchel they were in."

Elsa looked up to see that Toothless had woken up and had moved into the room and onto the bed with a creak as a result of the new amount of weight.

"Toothless, Hiccup has a fever and is in no condition to be moved. I will seal the doorway behind me, and you will hide. Under no circumstance should you help me, understand?"

Toothless, for his measure, let out a weak warble in acknowledgment, not really listening to what his brothers' mate was saying- especially when she mentioned the word 'hide'. He hid from nothing; he was an Alpha after all, and Alpha's could not sit a fight out.

"But just in case, I will create an escape window for you- just make sure you are not seen by anyone when you fly out. Hopefully, you will blend into the night sky." Elsa said as she used her magic to carve out an opening big enough for Hiccup to fly through. Letting out a small chuckle, "Of course you will blend into the night, you are a Night Fury after all." The smile disappeared from her face as the situation caught up to her as she heard men yelling the words 'attack' and Mund'r releasing another roar.

After the window was done, she went back to Hiccup and touched his cheek with her bare hand. "You have protected me long enough, now it is my time to protect you from the hidden dangers of the world." Elsa bent down and kissed Hiccup on the lips. Drawing back, she looked at Toothless. "If I should fall…" Elsa looked back at Hiccup "…If I should fall, get Hiccup out of here and go back to Berk." She said as a small sad smile graced her face, moving out into the hallway, she sealed off the room from the rest of the palace. Touching the new ice, "Goodbye Hiccup, I hope this is not the end, but if it is, I regret nothing in loving you. I will be waiting in Paradise with your father and my parents for your arrival." Her final words made her heart ache in pain. "May you live a long and happy life — even if it's with Astrid."

Turning towards the staircase, she descended down till she was at the front door, drawing it back a few inches to look at what was happening outside her new home.

Erik and Francis, dazed by the backhand to the chest, looked up and to their amazement, the Queen herself was looking down at them in surprise. When they made the motions of movement to go after her, she quickly closed the door behind her. Erik and Francis faulted for a moment to catch their breath. Francis touched his chest and groaned in pain. "That will leave a massive bruise."

"The Queen- come on! You can tend to your bruises later." Erik urged Francis as they grabbed their dropped crossbows, ducked under the snow beast and ran up the staircase.

Mund'r had just backhanded another batch of Guardsman into the snow wall as Prince Hans successfully ducked away from the hit.

Rolling to his feet, Hans unsheathed his sword and swiped at Mund'r leg, slicing it apart from the rest of his snowy body. Surprised at his lack of balance, Mund'r shambled back towards the chasm. Seeing an opportunity to make it into the palace, the young prince made a beeline for the staircase and was able to make it halfway before Mund'r fell into the chasm.

As Mund'r was falling into the chasm he saw one of his enemies on the ice bridge going with intent toward the home of his mother. Rolling over, he swiped at the bridge meaning to take it with him to prevent anyone from entering the palace. Sadly, he was only able to take a small portion of it with him. "Mother!" Mund'r roared as he fell into the dark chasm.

Hans saw the ice hand of the snow beast coming towards him and tried to duck out of the way, but it was too late and one of the icy claws caught his outer coat and brought him over the edge. Thankfully for his own sake, he was able to grab onto a part of the icy bridge with his left hand, saving his life, and allowed him to watch the giant snow monster fall into the chasm and out of sight. The sound of a metric ton of snow hitting the bottom was the only sound to come out of the rocky gap.

Several Guardsmen ran up the ice bridge to assist in pulling Hans back over the railing onto solid footing.

As Elsa ran into her large open second floor with the balcony now the only way out, she looked back at the opening she had come from to see the two men that had accompanied the Duke of Weselton pointing crossbows at her.

"Please, don't do this! I have done nothing to you." Elsa pleaded as Erik fired a bolt at her. Seeing it flying towards her, she instinctively brought her hands up in front of her and closed her eyes. A sharp piercing sound was heard as Elsa reopened her eyes to see the sharpened metal bolt millimeters from her face. Drawing back in surprise, she leaped out of the way of another bolt before skidding to a halt in the middle of the room.

Erik and Francis were blocking the only exit out. "What should I do now?" Elsa whispered to herself, but unfortunately, Erik heard her.

"Now it is time for you to be gotten rid of." Erik said as both he and Francis trained their crossbows at her heart, they only slightly wavered when he heard a muffled yell coming from behind them.


Hearing a faint roar from Mund'r Hiccup woke with a start, but instantly brought his hand to his head to stop himself from fainting. His head felt clouded, his body ached and felt hot to the touch. Turning slightly to look at his wound, Hiccup grimaced at the greenish hue. "Great. Just what I need- an infection."

Looking around he noticed that he was still in the side bedroom where he had been laid down by Mund'r. Seeing Toothless' giving him a concerned look frightened Hiccup. "Where's Elsa, Toothless?"

Toothless nodded towards the now sealed doorway. Hiccup got up and limped toward the fresh layer of ice, after hearing faint male voices, he pressed his ear to the ice hoping to hear the conversation taking place.

"Now it is time for you to be gotten rid of."

Alarmed at the death threat to his beloved, he yelled "Elsa?!" at the top of his lungs before a series of coughs racked his body causing him to stop.

Moving to Toothless and seeing the open window, Hiccup assumed that Elsa thought ahead and must have known a battle was going to take place.

"What to do, what to do." Hiccup asked himself, willfully stopping the feeling of panic from overwhelming him.

"There is no time to think. Armed men are about to kill Elsa! There must be more men - possibly the Royal Guardsmen- outside coming up the staircase. If Toothless is seen all my plans for the peaceful integration of dragons into society will be ruined. Elsa knew what was about to happen and locked me and Toothless out. What to do?" Hiccup said as he raked his hands through his hair in frustration, looking at Toothless and his tail and then to his bag and then the door, a half-assed idea popped into his head.

"Okay, time for something crazy, bud."

Toothless narrowed his eyes at the mention of the word 'crazy', and the look his brother gave while saying it. The last time he said those words, they had killed the Red Death and his brother lost his leg. His crazy ideas never really worked out that well.

"Toothless, I want you to fly out of here and return back to the cove. Under no circumstance are you to attack the Royal Guardsmen. They are most likely not being led by Birger, but instead being led by that Prince Hans character. I don't trust him, and neither should you." Hiccup said in a rush as he altered Toothless' tail to the point that he could fly without the aid of Hiccups steering. Moving over to the bag, he reached in and brought out a few gas sticks and a lighter. Looking to the ice wall, guesstimating the thickness of it, he used a piece of string to wrap three sticks together and placed it at the base of the sealed doorframe.

"Now go." He said to Toothless, who did not budge. Instead, the large dragon nearly cocked his head to the side as if saying, "I have not left your side before, I won't leave your side now."

Hiccup let out a small sigh and a smile, "I know Toothless, but this fight is one you cannot be involved in. As the Alpha, you must ensure that the other dragons have a living leader and being hunted down by several kingdoms will make that difficult. You must not be used as a weapon of war. We will see each other again, I promise. Now go- please." Hiccup said as he touched his forehead to Toothless'.

Toothless let out a small whine before moving to the window, taking a look back at Hiccup and then flying out into the dark night sky.

A lone tear fell down the young Chieftain's face. "Goodbye, Toothless; I will miss you."

Turning right back around and moving to light the fuse attached to the gas sticks, he readied himself for battle a few feet away. "I will probably die in the next few minutes, going into a battle with a fever, a limp against two possibly well-armed assassins does not give me the best odds of survival." Another tear ran down his face, which he wiped away with earnest. "No time for that now, I need to protect Elsa. Though dying for the woman I love, I'll die a true Viking death. I hope dad would approve. Perhaps I will be able to ask him that if I see him."

As Erik was pulling the trigger on his crossbow, an explosion happened behind him causing him to waver and take his finger off the trigger in order to prevent wasting a precious bolt. Blue and white clouds made of ice and water rushed into the large door frame and covered the two men. Elsa was confused at the sudden explosion and whipped up an ice wall for protection from the ice fragments.

Recovering first, Francis moved towards the site of the now destroyed wall, slowly training his bow at anything that might pop up. As he turned the corner, Hiccup came out of the haze to grab onto Francis and slam him into the wall behind him. Francis wheeled around on Hiccup and brought up his crossbow to fire on his attacker, but Hiccup was faster, he hit the firing mechanism on top of the bow triggering it and sending the bolt safely into the icy ground. He then smacked it aside and sent a fisted left-handed fist into the throat of the young assassin. Francis keeled over, clutching his neck in pain.

Rushing past his fallen enemy, Hiccup made a bee-line towards the taller mustached dispatcher who was still regaining his bearings, grabbing onto the crossbow and layering it into his enemy's chest preventing another bolt from releasing, out of the possibility of an accidental discharge. Hiccup brought his forearm up to the taller man neck and pressed forward, trying to knock him out.

Erik, for his own measure, released his right hand from the base of the bow and brought it down to where his dagger was hidden. Seeing this Hiccup grabbed the wrist of Erik and pushed it onto the door frame behind him.

Turning to where Elsa was standing frozen in sheer shock at the events unfolding around her, Hiccup leveled at her and motioned for her to move, when she did not, he pressed harder.

"ELSA, RUN!" Hiccup shouted at the top of his lungs, letting out a strong fit of coughs that caused his grip on Erik's wrist to loosen slightly. Erik pressed his advantage and moved the dagger out of its sheath, and toward the unprotected side of Hiccup's flight suit. Seeing this, Hiccup pressed his forearm harder into the throat of the tall killer.

After Hiccup yelled at her for only the second time in her life, she snapped out of her stupor and looked at Hiccup and the situation happening in front of her. Out of the haze in the background, she could see a figure approaching out-of-view of Hiccup's peripheral vision.

"Hiccup, to your right!" She yelled at him, hoping he had enough time.

Hiccup had just enough time to look to his right to see the butt of a crossbow smack him in the side of the head, instantly unconscious.

With the grip on him loosened, Erik brought his foot up and kicked the Viking away and onto the ground, Hiccup's head making a sickening smack against the icy floor. Francis came up and brought a hand to his mentor's shoulder.

"You all right Erik? The bastard almost got us! I thought…" Francis stopped when he saw his breath being condensed to small puffs of air. He also noticed it had gotten remarkably colder in the palace.

A cold voice spoke behind them. "You will regret the actions you have made today; I will see to that."

Francis looked up and Erik turned around to see that the formerly timid and shy Queen of Arendelle was now emanating nearly uncontrolled rage. There was a flurry of ice and snow circling around at waist level, as Elsa looked at the lifeless body of her beloved, a small stream of blood leaking of out his forehead. Elsa felt something inside her snap, as she looked back at the two assassins who felt a shiver go down their spines. Whether it was fear or the cold, they did not know.

As Elsa looked up, she could only see blue - everything and everyone was in different shades of blue. The two men in front of her were outlined in dark blue and everything else was light blue, including Hiccup's prone form.

"Erik, take a look - the Queen's irises are glowing blue. What does that mean?" Francis asked, fear entering his voice.

Erik shrugged indifferently. "Don't know, don't care. Come on, we have a job to do." Putting his dagger back into its sheath and training his bow at the Queen, Francis joined in after loading a new bolt into his bow and pulling the hammer back, ready to fire.

Not waiting to be fired upon again, Elsa let out a shot of icicles towards the foreign duo, causing them to separate - Francis to the right and Erik to the left. Erik returned fire with an arrow to Elsa's side which she managed to catch in a protective ice wall she threw up at the last moment. Francis for his own measure fired a bolt, just missing Elsa's head as it whizzed by and nearly hit Erik on the far side.

"Don't aim for her head, you idiot! Aim for her torso." Shouted Erik from the left side of the room. "And be wary of crossfire you almost killed me with that bolt!"

"Right, sorry sir!" Francis replied while reloading his bow.

Elsa released a strong gust of wind forcing the two against the far wall of their side of the room. Erik and Francis almost simultaneously released their arrows toward their intended target. Elsa seeing the missiles coming toward her, spun in place, kicking up a swirl of wind around her, forming a protective barrier between her and the deadly projectiles. The two bolts impacted and bounced off, falling harmlessly to the ground.

"My turn."

Turning towards Francis, Elsa brought up her hands and a blanket of ice shot out, skimmed across the floor of the room and crept up his body, starting at his feet and ending just under his neck. His shoulders were covered in a thin layer of ice preventing him from moving and firing his crossbow. "Dammit…I can't move. Quick Erik, kill her now while her back is turned!"

Erik wasted no time in his protégé's words and released a bolt at the back of Elsa.

Elsa rolled out of the way and watched as the sharpened arrow sailed through the air towards Francis, only stopping as it impacted the ice covering his chest.

"Dammit Erik, you just yelled at me about crossfire!" Francis said flabbergasted at the thought of death coming with centimeters of him.

Erik frowned at being a possible hypocrite. This was turning out to be one of the hardest assassination missions of his life; but in his defense, his other targets did not have magical ice powers he had to contend with.

While still kneeling after the dodge she just recovered from, Elsa placed a hand on her ice floor and shot some ice into it in the direction of Erik.

Erik let out a blood-curdling yell as an icicle came out of the wall and pierced his right thigh to extend a foot into the room.

Elsa stood up looking at her handiwork, Francis was almost encapsulated in ice and Erik had slung his crossbow to his side in favor of trying to stop the flow of blood escaping his right thigh. He was anchored to the wall by the six-centimeter-wide protruding icicle.

As she started to walk towards the prone form of Hiccup, Prince Hans and her Royal Guardsmen burst into the room and looked at the results of a short battle.

Prince Hans was stunned seeing Francis frozen to the wall, Erik clutching his bleeding thigh, the prone bleeding body of the Viking Chief, and Elsa standing in the middle of the chamber, seemingly untouched except for the fact that her eyes were glowing blue.

"What in God's name happened here?" He whispered to himself.

Flying through the cold night air, circling the castle again and again in hopes of catching a glimpse of his brother, Toothless waited. Just as he was making the fourth pass, a smell caught his enhanced nostrils. Iron, and when it filtered down into his mouth it tasted of blood.

Alarmed, Toothless flew closer to the front of the palace. Through an opening in the balcony door frames, Toothless was able to see Elsa in the center of the room and in front of her was his brother on the floor - unmoving. He quickly altered his course and flew towards the balcony doors.

"Sorry brother, but as Alpha, I must protect you and your mate." Toothless thought as he smashed back legs first into the doors in order to protect himself.

Just as Elsa made eye contact with Prince Hans, the doors behind her exploded inwards and collapsed as Toothless came into the chamber. Screeching to a halt behind Elsa, the massive dragon let out a great roar in anger with wings extended to show its sheer size. This caused Elsa to break out of her heightened focus and as a result, the blue in her eyes went away and she could see properly again.

Turning around to address the dragon, she brought her hands up to touch Toothless on the wing. "Toothless, what are you doing here? You were supposed to flee."

The Guards and Prince Hans took a step back in fear and surprise at the sudden introduction of a real and living dragon. Dragons were a mythical creature who brought death upon whoever approached them and yet here one was aiding the Queen. "What in God's name has Arendelle been doing these last few years?" Prince Hans asked himself.

Taking gain of the Queen's exposed side, Francis shifted against the thin ice repeatedly until the ice broke and his shoulders were free, he then brought up his crossbow with his one right arm and trembling took aim, the cold was starting to take its toll on his captured body.

Toothless hearing the noises of ice breaking and a weapon being raised looked up and turned toward the young man, he opened his mouth to fire.

Erik seeing this called out to his protégé and friend. "Francis! Drop your crossbow, now!"

Francis took his sight off the exposed side of the Queen to see a bluish-white ball of light approaching his head … and then a second later, nothing.

Everyone watched in terror as the head of Francis disappeared and was replaced with a red paste that smeared across the icy wall in all directions. The now headless body folding over, and blood poured out onto the floor. The only sounds in the room were Toothless' panting and the drip of blood hitting the floor.

Horrified, Elsa turned her head back to look at Toothless in the face, though his eyes were on the group of men in front of him. Grabbing both sides of his head Elsa brought his gaze down to hers. "Toothless, you just complicated things immensely," she whispered to the protective dragon. "Now go, and don't come back until I or Hiccup say so."

When Toothless did not move still eyeing the soldiers, Elsa let out a sigh and brought up her hands, willing a gust of wind, it moved toothless across the floor, off the balcony, and into the open night air. Toothless let out a screech in surprise but caught himself as he unfolded his wings gaining air and flapped into the safe and calm night sky.

"Be careful, Toothless." She spoke quietly into the silence, before turning to the shocked Guards.

"Now before you say anything, I can explain everything. You just need to lis…" Elsa started before she saw the last remaining assassin raise his crossbow toward her. She became immobilized by fear.

"This is for Francis, you bitch." Erik growled as he pressed down on the trigger.

Prince Hans seeing his chance at becoming a white knight about to be murdered in front of him, bolted to his right and grabbed the crossbow and pointed it up. Regrettably, the bolt released and shattered the rope of ice holding the magnificent chandelier to the ceiling.

Elsa's head snapped upward in surprise, her body moved before she commanded it to, and as the chandelier came crashing down behind her, pieces of it shot outward in all directions and some managed to get ahead of her causing Elsa to trip forward. Her powers acted instinctively and created a small pile of snow for her to land on.

The dust cloud blanketed everyone in snow and ice fragments from Erik on the wall to all the Guards, the unconscious body of Hiccup and finally Prince Hans standing in the door frame.

Several seconds went by as the last of the lighting fixture remnants came to a stop and the ice cloud dissipated. Opening her eyes, Elsa rolled over and hauled herself up into a sitting position. Seeing footsteps approaching, she looked to see Sergeant Major Hansen kneel over her.

"Sergeant Major Hansen, can you…" Elsa tried to get out before she was knocked unconscious by a hit to the back of her head by the pommel on his sword. Elsa's body flopped backward onto the snow.

Several gasps escaped the men at what they had just seen.

"You…you just assaulted our Queen!" One of the Guards in the back shouted as he gripped his sword.

"I did what needed to be done," Hansen retorted curtly. "Our Queen caused the death of a member of the Weselton delegation. She also froze our capital, nearly killed everyone in the ballroom, and can seemingly produce ice at her back and call. This needs to be contained, or else we'll have an international dilemma on our hands."

Turning around and marching toward Prince Hans who was still holding Erik and his crossbow, Sergeant Major Hansen gave a sword salute to the prince. "What are your orders, Prince Hans?"

"This is treason!" protested Private Gudmund, the Guard who had spoken earlier. "Even if Princess Anna left him in charge, that is still not enough to give him authority in a situation that determines the safety and wellbeing of our Queen." The other Guards stirred uneasily, not knowing how to react to this delicate situation.

"Do you stand with me, Sergeant Major Hansen?" Prince Hans asked the senior Guard.

"I do Sir." Hansen nodded curtly.

"In that case, arrest Private Gudmund, the Viking Chief, and Queen Elsa- then provide medical aid to Erik and bring down the body of Francis."

Sergeant Major Hansen turned around and looked at the rest of the volunteers and Private Gudmund in the back.

"Do you stand with me and have the chance to serve under a normal prince, or take orders from the ice witch who froze our home and has aligned herself with a dragon?"

The Royal Guards eyed one another and after a moment drew their swords and pointed them at Prince Hans and Sergeant Major Hansen. Private Gudmund smiled a little, before the smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown as his fellow Guardsmen spun on their heels one hundred and eighty degrees to point their sharpened swords at him.

"Your sword, Private Gudmund." The Sergeant-Major didn't bother hiding his smirk.

The young Guard glared at his superior, before reluctantly taking off his belt and handing the sword to the nearest Guard. Private Gudmund voiced his thoughts on the outcome of the situation before him. "You will all hang for this."

After Francis' body was brought down and wrapped up, Erik was treated, and Hiccup was placed in a sled behind the horse carrying the tied-up Queen. Prince Hans and Sergeant Major Hansen had a moment together to look at what was left of the room that housed the recent chain of events.

"You know, you may think I'm crazy," began Hansen, "but I swear that dragon was wearing a saddle. And to top it off, the Viking Chief was wearing a riding harness from the looks of it. Could the two be linked?" Hansen asked the foreign Prince.

"Vikings riding on dragons? That is preposterous. Never." Hans chided the man beside him.

"Also, from what I could gather the Vikings live on an island four days north of here and came neither via horse nor ship… to my knowledge. So how did they get here?"

A look of revelation streaked across Prince Hans face as he took all the facts in. "This means that if the Viking Chief flew here on the back of a dragon, it would be understandable that the rest of the Vikings did so as well." He then looked thoughtful. "This changes things immensely." And all in my favor, he thought to himself.

"It certainly does." Hansen agreed. "Needless to say, the Duke of Weselton will want justice for his fallen man. Possibly an execution." He said as he whispered the last word.

Hans' eyes widened at that remark. "Anything else you wish to tell me?"

"One more thing, three years ago Queen Elsa- at that time a princess traveled to Berk, the name of the island the Vikings live on, one can assume the dragons live there."

Prince Hans eyed the Senior Guardsman. "Your point being?"

"Elsa did not travel alone. She brought her lady-in-waiting, her personal physician, a dozen Guards and most of all Captain Birger went with her to ensure her safety. They all must have known about the dragons, but either Queen Elsa or the late King Agdar ordered them to remain silent. Thus, those men and Captain Birger will be expected to remain loyal to the Queen and may try to arrest me and you once they find out what transpired here."

Prince Hans nodded and ran a hand through his hair while thinking for a moment.

"We will need more men; can we count on the rest of the guards to come to our aid?"

"I believe so, yes. From what I can tell, those soldiers that went on trips to Berk received better pay and living conditions than the rest of the guards, leaving a bad taste in everyone else. I could sway them to our side." Sergeant Major Hansen replied with a grin plastered on his face.

Hans spotted the ambitious glint in Hansen's eyes. "He wants to be Captain of the Guard," Hans realized. "And from hearing him talk of Birger, it sounds like he has a rivalry against his commanding officer. Perhaps I can use this to my advantage."

"Good," he allowed himself a smile. "And if everything goes smoothly, I will make you the new Captain of the Royal Guard when I and Princess Anna rule together in Queen Elsa's stead." Prince Hans held out his hand to seal the deal.

His fellow cohort-in-crime and conspirator grabbed his hand and shook it, confirming the pact. An alliance was sealed.

The Sergeant-Major left the room and traveled down the ice staircase towards the front entrance of the palace leaving Prince Hans alone to collect his thoughts.

"Everything seems to be coming together in my favor. And I now have an ally to possibly bring me one step closer to claiming the throne of Arendelle."

Looking up from the now destroyed balcony ledge, he noticed the black dragon streak across in front of the moon's glow.

"Something is rotten in the Kingdom of Arendelle." Prince Hans said into the cold night air. "Best to take advantage of it."

He turned around, smiled and walked out of the damaged room, not caring that his boots bathed in the blood pool of a fellow foreigner. "In all honesty, this is only the beginning of the blood bath." Prince Hans thought as he leisurely strolled down the stairs.


Author's Note: Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter of An Arranged Life. Please continue to follow and review this story, I thank you for your continued support and patience. Have a nice day or night. Sincerely Colonel Pepper