Anna's POV

Oh god.

Did I really go for it?

It feels… real. I really feel his soft lips on mine.

We pulled away; my eyes instantly locked onto his. I never realized just how beautiful they were. They were as green as the field, as shiny as the fjord during noon, and as dreamy as… a dream. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the III, it's too late but better than never; why are you so beautiful?

I leaned in for another kiss, but something pulled him into a crowd of people. Within a blink of an eye, he was merely an arm trying to reach me in the sea of people. Within another blink, he was gone.

I couldn't react in time. When I finally moved my muscles, a mysterious force prevented me from moving forward. Its strength was beyond mine; I couldn't do anything.

"AHHH!"

That scream. It could only belong to Hiccup.

"Hiccup!"

I woke up.

The sunrise from the windows suggested that it was nearing dawn. Dearie me, my sleep was quite long, wasn't it?

I caught my absent breath. My heart was racing. That dream. I wasn't sure which part made my heart race more; the romantic part or the horrifying part? And did I really kiss him?

I looked to the pillow that I laid my head on and found something embarrassing… a kiss mark. Of course, I kissed my own pillow. On what occasion were we doing that? How did I get lost in his eyes? Why did I lean in for another kiss? Who took him? Why did he scream?

I noticed right away that I was proposing questions that would never have answers to complement them. I wanted to stop, but one popped inside my mind.

"Out of every possibility of a dream, why did that one appear?" I asked myself. I tried to trace back anything in my recent times that could've triggered such dream. Then it came; Iduna's question. The little girl asked whether Hiccup and I were a couple. Of course, we were not. Our relationship had been purely platonic ever since we met, and Iduna's question sparked a tiny hint a sense of… romanticism of me towards the guy. It was almost like… my eyes were finally peeled. Hiccup is beautiful, in terms of personality and looks.

We've been friends for years. It was no secret that we would miss each other when we separated. Yes, before he arrived here by 'accident', we would only meet occasionally, but every time we did, we would make sure we would spend it fully. Never was a second wasted to even take a breather, since we knew that we would have to return to our duties.

Hiccup Haddock… a chief, a Viking, a dragon rider, a friend.

I placed my hand on my chest. It really was racing. Do I want to proceed to the next level?

My eyes watered at the sight of him limping. My heart dropped upon seeing him laying down on his own blood. My mind dedicated everything into healing his. My soul gave a piece of its own to ensure his soul's intactness. My lips smiled every time his own smiled.

All of these… I did it because I love him.

The word never occurred in my mind, but now that it has, I've never felt anything truer.

Goodness.

Grumbles…

Oh, my belly. I haven't had any food in a while.

I put on a simple dress from the wardrobe and walked out of my room. My feet were walking zig-zag in the hallway due to my sleepiness, so I wasn't really walking on a straight line on my way to the dining room.

I opened the door of the dining room, and found Elsa there.

"Good morning, Anna," she greeted.

"Morninggg… Where's breakfast?"

Weirdly, she gave herself a face palm. However, soon, I learned that I was in the office, not the dining room.

Goodness, and Hiccup was here. My heart skipped a beat so hard, I feared that either Elsa or Hiccup had heard the beat.

"The dining room is on the west wing, Your Majesty," Hiccup told me.

"H-Hiccup!" I closed the door behind me. "You're here!"

"Yeah, was just doing the papers with Elsa, and… Blue if you counted the amount of papers he had burned," he chuckled, approaching me. With what I was thinking about the guy in the past minutes, my cheeks inevitably reddened. Not just because he was approaching me, but also because I was still in my fresh-from-bed looks!

"I think I'm gonna go home for the day, I'll see you two tomorrow, yeah?" He patted my shoulder, reaching for the doorknob. He was never approaching for me; he was approaching for the door!

My heart dropped at his excuse to leave for the day.

"Leaving so s-soon?"

Damn, the stutters. I was never this nervous around him.

"I've been here since morning, Anna," Hiccup opened the door.

"Y-You sure you don't wanna eat with me—wait, morning?"

"Yeah, it's almost evening. We're still in the same day, in case you didn't notice. Tomorrow's dinner on the ship?" He proposed.

"Oh my—I completely lost track of time," I nodded. "Sure."

"Cool. See you two tomorrow! Oh, and Elsa, tell her about what we are going to do tomorrow before departure."

With that, he left the room. I then proceeded to interrogate myself; what was that all about? The stutters? The blushes? The heat inside my heart?

"Anna?"

"HA—PRESENT!" I turned to my sister, who turned out to be holding Blue who was asleep.

"Shhh… my baby is still asleep," she caressed the dragon on the head, then looked up to me to give a dirty look. "You're blushing."

"What? No, I'm not," I rejected.

My sister gently put the dragon off of her lap. "You can be open to me, I'm pretty good in keeping confidential stuff."

"Okay, perhaps, I was, but it's because I," I gestured to myself, "Am still fresh from the bed."

"You sure it's not because of Hiccup?" She nudged my side.

"No! Well, I mean, yeah, who would not be embarrassed to expose your fresh-from-bed looks to a guy like Hiccup?" I excused.

"A guy like Hiccup, huh?" She quoted. "So, does that mean you wouldn't mind exposing this look to other guys?"

I could feel my cheeks reddening again. "Oh quit it," I walked to the desk to grab one of the papers to start working. I read a random one that I reached.

"So… Your Majesty, if it would not be much of an inconvenience, we would like to have your presence at our daughter's birthday party—"

"We would be on our way to Old Berk by then since the party is a week from now," Elsa cut. "And I thought you were going to eat?"

"Oh, yeah, I was—"

"Gosh, you are so in love that a sight of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The III fulfilled your hunger right away—"

I covered my ears. "LalalaLALALA—"

"Aww, Anna, my sister, feeling butterflies in her stomach?" Elsa reached for my sides and tickled them. They were my weak spots, so I curled down right away.

"ELSA! S-STOP!" Inevitably, I laughed along.

"Don't pretend, Anna. Your gestures whenever the guy left your side, they're too obvious! Even I, a girl with zero experience in romance, could easily read them!" She explained while continuing the tickles.

"G-geez!" My laughter was going out of hand as my eyes began to become wet. Finally, I curled down on the floor to avoid the tickles, which she stopped afterwards.

"O-Okay…" I looked up to my sister. "You sure you can keep confidential stuff?"

Elsa nodded confidently. "Mhm!"

I rested my back against the desk. "There's… a secret dungeon on the ceiling of my room," I smiled.

In return, she gave a frown. "That's the attic."

"HEHEH—I… just had a dream. He was in it…"

She sat in front of me. "What were you two doing?"

"We were um…"

"Kissing?" She cut.

Of course, that's the one that she guessed first. Of course, my cheeks got hotter right away.

And of course, she recognized the blush right away.

"You were!" She exclaimed, holding my forearms.

"Eh…" I didn't say yes or no, merely because she could read me easily.

"I heard it happens. It's alright."

But then I remembered the next part, the part that was not so pleasant to remember. "Elsa, but then, he was pulled into this… crowd of people. I couldn't move one bit."

"Pulled?"

"We were… well," I showed him the gap between my index and thumb fingers, which was nonexistent. "That close, but a mysterious force just pulled him into nowhere."

"And you fear that the same thing will take place in the future?" She asked.

"Yes. It's possible! Tomorrow, we're heading to New Berk, anything could happen!"

Elsa gave my hands a squeeze. "I won't let that happen; don't you worry."

I let out a sigh. But I appreciated her for her sisterly love. "Thank you. And about that thing that Hiccup told previously, what was it?"

"Oh. It's about the funeral, for our fallen soldiers. I proposed his kind's funeral, a Viking funeral," she explained. The idea drew my interest, though it was initially quite the surprise.

"Okay…"

"I just thought it would honor them greatly. Hiccup will lead the funeral. I believe they cremate their fallen ones. I mean, they also do the usual burial, but the one that is known the most is the cremation. Do you remember the one we witnessed when we visited Old Berk?"

I recalled the memory inside my mind. "Oh yes. It was one of the elders of the tribe. It was so beautifully done, I must say."

"The Vikings indeed respect their fallen ones so highly."


Though we thought the idea was brilliant, Elsa and I still had doubts whether the families of the fallen soldiers would agree to the idea or not. The possibility of the either of the families rejecting the idea was still there, but, the odds happened. After asking each family, they agreed to the idea.

Perhaps, Hiccup had his effect in the process of their decision-making. Every Arendellian knew him. Hiccup and Toothless were a duo that brought joy and warmth, literal warmth, to the kingdom. He would let people get close to his dragon to admire the beast, and some lucky ones got to ride on the air with Toothless. Now that he had shown up in the kingdom with almost nothing to lose other than his dear life, my people grew sorry for the Viking. And with him recently turning himself in for Iduna's safety in front of many eyes, he had received the utmost respect there was from everybody. And now,

every Arendellian was present at the cloudy dock.

The family of the soldiers were placing flowers on the bodies of the soldiers, which were wrapped with pyres. On top of each body sat their hats and their swords, a reminder of the service that had done to the kingdom. Since the families were grieving, it was inevitable that some of the bodies received their family's tears as well.

Ten men from ten different families; the last one to dress the last soldier with flowers was the one that ached the most; a woman, who was the daughter of one of the soldiers. Her mother had died because of a severe ill. Luckily, she was already a grown woman with enough earnings for herself, as I heard from my generals.

Finally, every family finished bidding their last farewells. They returned to their positions, filling the air with sobs and cries.

Hiccup, standing on the very front of the crowd, readied his arrows and bow. The Viking lit his arrow on a torch an Arendellian soldier was holding.

"May the Valkyries welcome you… and lead you through Odin's great battlefield."

"May they sing your names with love and fury, so that we might hear it from the depths of Valhalla, and know that you have taken your rightful places at the table of kings…" He paused, giving a nod to the soldiers who were standing by on each boat. With the nod, they hoisted each boat's sail, and the wind immediately picked them up. The boats slowly made their way to the fjord.

"…For great men have fallen. Soldiers. Fathers. Husbands. Friends. Arendellians."

Hiccup looked at us and nodded, signaling us to ready our bows and arrows. With that signal, Elsa, Arendellian Generals, and I nocked our burning arrows, aiming them upwards.

Hiccup turned back around to the boats. He nocked his arrow, aimed it upwards, and loosened the string.

Every eye locked onto it, watching it landing on one of the boats. After landing, it was time for us to loosen our strings. We fired the fire arrows.

It didn't take long until each boat was finally lit on fire due to the pyre that had been set on the bodies of the soldiers. The sight gained more tears from the eyes of the grieving families. I heard the crying growing more intensely and emotionally. It pained me to hear them like this.

Because of the cloudy and rather foggy atmosphere, the sight of the boats gradually became less clear as time passed. Soon, the formation of the boat was merely a line of bright fire in the view afar. One by one, the fire swallowed everything on the boat, breaking the line that it used to form. We merely watched the boats in utter silence.

Hiccup returned to us after watching the boats disappearing. "Let's bid farewell to Arendelle."