"Why haven't you went back for Hiccup!" Astrid exploded, pouncing on the dragon, who disposed of her with ease. "He was right there! We could have saved him!"
The dragon looked into her eyes and then sadly shook her head.
"Come now! You're a dragon! You could have given them a good beating yourself."
Fury raised her left wing and showed Astrid four deep furrows that ran through her body. Her wounds were crusted with doubtful color, but the dragon seemed fine.
"Toothless?" Astrid said, recognizing those marks.
The dragon nodded and dropped to the ground, curled into a ball.
"It can't be..." She shook her head. "Toothless would never do that..."
"And yet he had," Elsa replied from her corner, still looking half lost.
"No, Elsa, you don't know Toothless. He doesn't—"
"I know Anna," she cut her off. "She would never hurt me, but she is not herself, just as Toothless is not the one who makes the decisions."
"What are you talking about?"
Fury raised her head, interested.
Elsa sighed and told them everything she had discovered.
"So Hiccup..."
"Yes... Probably they subjugated him..."
"No..." Astrid said. "I won't allow it. I won't let him be one more puppet at the hands of you who knows who."
The Viking rose and started to leave the cave, determined, but a sudden block of ice blocked the entrance completely.
Fury winced, staring at Elsa in disbelief. Then, she cautiously approached the wall and probed it with her paw, making sure it was something real.
"What are you doing?!" Astrid turned angrily.
"Preventing you from doing anything stupid."
"Open it right now!"
Elsa stood still in the corner, watching her.
"Open it!"
Faced with the Arendellian's refusal, Astrid raised her ax and slammed it into that ice wall, again and again, scaring Furia, who returned to her place. Despite the strong blows from the Viking, she barely managed to make a few small marks on the ice. Seeing that it had no effect, she went straight to Elsa, grabbed her clothes tightly at her chest, and forced her to get up, holding her against the wall.
"Get that damn wall off now."
Elsa looked into her eyes.
"No."
Desperate, Astrid clenched her teeth and her fists.
"If you want to hit me, go ahead, but even if I fall unconscious that wall will still be there. I'm not going to let you do such a stupid thing."
With a cry, Astrid let go of Elsa and, again, plunged into the arduous task of hacking her way through, burning all the rage out of her. Finally, exhausted, she dropped to her knees and cried. Elsa approached her, cautiously, and sat down next to her. He put an arm around her shoulders and drew her to her body, and Astrid allowed herself to be dragged. The Arendellian hugged her and stroked her hair tenderly, and for a while, only the crackle of the fire and the Viking's sobs were heard.
"I know it's hard," Elsa told her softly when the Viking was calmer. "All of us here have someone important there, waiting for us, but we have to think something. We can't go without a plan or we'll get caught... or worse."
She felt a stab of pain in her temples.
Astrid got up. The image of Hiccup parading with an empty gaze and forced to realize who knows what atrocities tormented her.
"I don't want him to be another pawn for his army..."
"Army?" Elsa asked, confused.
"Yes..."
Astrid related her discovery to Elsa, who grew more and more concerned.
"I don't like this at all," said the Arendellian, biting her thumb and pacing restlessly through the cave. The fjord was frozen and the roads practically impassable, but she still felt she was missing something important.
The Viking, seeing how Elsa lost herself in her thoughts, approached Fury.
"Fury... forgive me. I'm very sorry about, well... everything. I shouldn't have doubted you, not when we were in town nor today."
The dragon struck the back of the Viking's neck with her tail, snorting.
"Ouch!" Astrid complained, clutching her head.
Then, Fury leaned her head gently against Astrid's body, who returned the gesture by hugging her.
"Draw, then?"
The dragon nodded her head gently and they both stayed that way, comforting each other for a few moments.
"Don't worry, we'll bring them back, you'll see."
Astrid and Fury were looking everywhere, cowering from the cold and in wonder at the same time.
"What did you say this place is called?"
"Ahtohallan," Elsa replied hurriedly.
"And what are we doing here?"
But Elsa, again, didn't answer. Astrid and Fury looked at each other. The Viking shrugged and they both followed her.
The Arendellian guided them through a tangle of ice corridors, towards the depths of that glacier. Astrid's teeth were chattering and Fury was beginning to take on a certain bluish color to her skin, and yet Elsa was moving forward as if nothing was happening.
Finally, they reached a large room, with a much more bearable temperature, where they stopped.
"It's here."
Astrid looked around her and saw only the walls of the room.
"Ok... now what?"
"I'm not really sure..." Elsa confessed. "The only time I've been here I knew exactly what I was looking for and it was all very straightforward."
"And what were you looking for?"
"The truth about the past of the enchanted forest..."
A light shone on the wall and the face of King Runeard appeared.
"By Odin's beard!" Astrid exclaimed in wonder. "Who is it?"
"My grandfather. It is a long story."
"He looks a bit like my Uncle Birdnut, but much more thin!"
Another light flashed on the wall, next to the first, showing Astrid's relative.
"Oh wow!" Astrid was surprised again. "Looking at them side by side, they don't look that much alike."
Fury approached, and as it did so, a new light appeared showing Toothless. He growled at Astrid and nodded at the image.
"Yes, sorry Fury. We better focus." She then turned to Astrid. "What are we looking for?"
"There is something that I cannot get out of my mind about what the spirit told me. It said it had been erased from history, or something like that. And if that's the case, here at the Ahtohallan we should be able to find something. Or so I hope."
"Ok, let's get to work!"
The three of them set about the arduous task of exploring the past, learning the mechanics of the Ahtohallan by trial and error. They spent several hours simply learning how to visualize the past of beings they knew directly, and some few hours more to visualize the past of any other being. However, this last option was much more complex than the previous one and required a lot of concentration. Furthermore, the amount of information was overwhelming: the memories of millions and millions of beings rested there and they didn't even know how many years they must go back in history.
"It's impossible..." Astrid said, exhausted.
They had gone outside to eat and rest, in the camp they had set up in a small cave formed by the rocks of the Ahtohallan. Elsa and Astrid were having a good meal by the fire, and Fury was flying over the Dark Sea, taking a dip from time to time to catch a clueless fish.
"It's worse than looking for a needle in a haystack!"
The Viking lay on the ground, her hair disheveled. Elsa had to look away when she felt her heart race.
"Sometimes it's best to disconnect for a while to refresh your mind. There is no point in us spending the entire night in a daze, exhausting and frustrating ourselves."
The Viking grunted, unhappy and frustrated.
Fury returned and uncarefully shook off the water, splashing the two girls and ignoring their protests. Then the dragon lit the wooden pyre and lay down beside it, trembling, to regain warmth. Astrid remembered Hiccup's words, remembered that Fury was risking her life by staying so long in that cold place, and felt a deep respect for her.
"Better rest," sighed the Viking, lying on her side and covering herself with a blanket.
"Yes..." Elsa replied, fighting herself. "Goodnight."
"Night."
Elsa lay down and shifted uncomfortably. She turned her back to the fire and to the Viking and tried to fall asleep, but a little voice in her head kept bothering her.
"Astrid..." he whispered. "Are you asleep?"
"No," she answered from the other side of the fire. "What's up?"
"I'm really— I'm really sorry I kissed you the other day."
Astrid felt her stomach tingle at the memory, and at the same time, she felt bad for noticing it.
"Don't worry about it," she replied, shrugging it off.
"I shouldn't have. The truth is, I don't know what happened to me. And I'm sorry that made you and Hiccup argue," Elsa said, unable to control the rush of feelings she felt. "I appreciate you very much and I feel bad for everything that has happened. This is the first time I have felt like this and, honestly, I don't even know how to deal with it. And you may not want to talk about it and you just want to forget about it, but I feel like I have to apologize and be honest, and that we need to talk about it to get the issue resolved."
Astrid didn't say a word.
"Say something, please ..." asked the Arendellian.
Astrid got up.
"Elsa..."
She didn't know how to start.
"Go ahead. Let it go. I'm ready."
The Viking sighed. Maybe that also could serve to clarify herself.
"I liked it."
Elsa got puzzled and her heart race.
"What?" She answered, incredulous.
"The kiss you gave me, I liked it. I can't explain it well, but you made me feel things. And that has me confused, I will not deny it. But... I don't want you to get your hopes up or give you false hope. I mean, I love Hiccup with all my soul and I don't want to lose him for anything in the world. Our bond is something sacred to me and I know I need to clarify myself, but I will always give him priority over everything and everyone... Sorry, Elsa."
Those words hurt Elsa more than anything else. No matter how much she believed she was ready or how many times she had imagined what her rejection would be like, seeing the little flame of hope extinguished hurt more than she could have imagined.
"C'me here..."
Astrid walked over to her and hugged her, and then Elsa realized the tears welling up from her own eyes.
"I'm sorry I can't offer you more than my friendship," the Viking told her.
Elsa shook her head.
"Only with that I have already found a treasure," she replied, allowing herself to be hugged a little more. Then she took a deep breath, slowly blew out the air, and pulled away from Astrid. "I'm glad I discussed it with you."
And it was true. Despite the pain that she felt in her heart, she also felt much better.
"Me too," Astrid replied. "And now, time to sleep; tomorrow we have a story to gut."