Yes, the story Anna told to Hiccup is literally 'Brother Bear' :) love reading your reviews, Ultraviolet!
Hiccup's POV
Nokk kept pushing me down and down with its head while 'galloping' underwater. Safe to say, I panicked. I never had a chance to take a breath before being dragged away. So, it was only a matter of seconds until I began taking in seawater instead of air.
However, I sensed something pulling my hand. It was hard to make out with my blurry vision, but it was definitely Anna.
She pulled me toward the surface. Later, we broke through it. I immediately threw up all of the water that I had previously swallowed.
"You okay, Hiccup?" She asked. I coughed even more before I could even reply.
"Uh… yeah… W-What's Nokk's problem—WHOA!"
Before I could even finish, Nokk had dragged me away again. This time, the water horse was in the form of a mere torrent. The spirit pushed me by the belly down and down into the depth. Again, the spirit took me by surprise, so I never had the change to take a breather, again.
I wiggled my body around to break free of the spirit's grasp. The part of my body that contacted with the spirit was by the stomach, so I 'pushed' the water away from it. Somehow, I broke free of it! I looked up to see Anna making her way down to me. I swam my way upwards and caught her arm in the way. Once again, we resurfaced again!
"Haaaa! H-Hiccup, I need to tell you something!" She said.
"W-What?"
"Nokk's unique characteristic is… kind of sadistic, in a way. But he despises lies! And he will drown anyone who has a spoken a lie to someone!" She explained in a hurry. I raised a brow in confusion.
"A lie?"
"Yes! You must've lied about something to me, tell me the truth and that way he will—HICCUP!"
I was dragged again, by the foot! But this time, the horse oddly remained on the surface in the form of a torrent of water. Anna kept her grip on my hands tight and was dragged along as well. She positioned herself to have her feet 'dragging' across the water by using our connected hands as a balancing point.
"Just tell me the truth and he will let go of you!" Anna finished her explanation.
I pondered for a moment. The only lie that I had told her was how I truly felt about our relationship. But I had good reasons for it. However, seeing this was a life-and-death situation, I spat the truth.
"Alright… Anna! I do have feelings for you! It was never platonic!"
Right away, I felt the grasp on my foot was no more. Slowly, we began to decelerate to a full stop.
"You… do?" Anna asked while keeping herself afloat on the water.
I nervously gulped. "Yeah… You sure you didn't secretly tell Nokk to drag me away because you were upset with my response?"
She frowned immediately. "Had I done that, I would've never come to save you," she gave my nose a 'boop'. "But… why lied about it?" Her tone screamed disappointment.
"I…"
Nokk surfaced from the water in its normal form with us on its back. The water horse gave us a ride back to the ship. We hopped off the horse once arrived and the horse returned into the water.
"I… am not in a condition to form a relationship. Or situation. Whatever. The point is…" I shoved my hands together to create some bits of warmth. "I am about to depart into a dangerous adventure to save what's left of Berk and possibly save the dragons as well, and I just think… a relationship is not what I'm going to need in a hurry. I'm sorry, Anna. I didn't want to say this to you, so I panicked, and I lied."
The Queen of Arendelle processed my statement for a while. While doing so, the door of the cabin opened abruptly, revealing Elsa with two blankets on her arms.
"Elsa…" I spoke.
"Shhh, why don't you two go inside, *yawn*, and I'll stand by outside?" She gave the towels to us.
"Have you been eavesdropping?" Anna asked.
Her sister smiled mischievously. "Perhaps. Now go inside, get changed, again, and continue your… talk."
It sounded like the best idea there was; the night was freezing cold, and we were both soaking wet. It didn't take long until one of us began shivering. So, we went into the cabin and had ourselves dried and changed. Of course, we gave each other the utmost privacy while doing so.
"I'm done, you can turn around, Hiccup."
With that, I turned around to see a dried Anna in a different attire. She patted the spot next to her on the bed. I sat down with her after being signaled.
"So… you were going to say…" I started.
"Well, to be honest… I'm quite saddened," she shoved her arm, looking away. "I really like you… But I guess I'll have to respect your decision."
"I… really like you, too, Anna," I took her hands and kept them inside mine. "I think you're the most amazing woman I've ever met in my life. You're smart. You're gorgeous. You radiate positivity even in the most negative situation!"
Her cheeks were visibly starting to redden. "That almost sounded like an insult."
I scoffed. "It was."
She slapped my arm while smiling. "Hiccup!"
"Haha… And you're… incredibly supportive… and I'm already running out of words as well," I admitted. "I guess words can't describe you enough since you're that amazing to me, Anna."
Anna simply looked away with a smile and a deep blush on each of her cheeks. She spoke of nothing.
"But, again…" I sighed. "We're about to depart to…"
"I know. It's okay," she cut, looking up to me. "At least… now I know the truth, it certainly makes me feel better. And Hiccup, we will go through this together, and we will make it out. We will succeed."
The smile she had on her lips screamed confidence, which relieved me nicely. I returned the smile and scooched closer to her to kiss her by the hair. The queen didn't really take it in nicely; she hid her face in her knees, probably embarrassed by my action.
"You… okay?" I asked.
"No?" She replied.
"Okay… I'll tell your sister to come in," I stood up. "You should sleep."
I still earned no response. I walked away to the door.
"Good night, Hiccup."
Her farewell sounded muffled, and after turning around to the girl herself, I could see why. Now she was hiding her face with a pillow. What a cutie.
"Good night, Anna."
I walked out of the cabin. I thought I'd spot Elsa right away, but she was nowhere to be found. But then I heard soft snoring behind me, and there she was, sleeping while standing on the wheel. Our conversation was that loud, apparently?
"Elsa," I called, approaching her. She gave no response.
"Elsa," I nudged her side.
"Uh—huh?"
"I'll do tonight's shift. You go to bed," I told her.
"Mmm… how did it go, bud?" She asked in her sleepy tone.
"What 'it'?" I raised a brow.
"Ya know…" She nudged me. "She had her eyes open on the moments that you would spend with her, eyeing on every chance there is. She took it, didn't she?"
I let out a chuckle. "She did."
"What did you say?" She asked with full curiosity. It's as if she was never sleepy.
"You know what? Why don't you ask your sister about that?" I pushed her to the cabin. "Sounds good? Of course it does," I opened the cabin door for her. "Good night!"
Before coming in, she exchanged a glance with me, "Alright, Viking boy."
With that, I made my way to the wheel. I checked the compass and the stars, which was quite hard since the northern light was on the way. Calculating the course mentally, I calculated that we were still on course. With the speed supported by Nokk, the water spirit that happened to despise lies so much that it would literally 'kill' them, we were to arrive within only a day and a half or two days.
However, two days of… what could possibly a very awkward journey.
It's no longer a secret that we liked each other so much. The only difference was the intention to date. Judging from her, Anna wanted to date me as early as possible. I suppose if there were anything to happen to either of us that would eventually result in both of us being separated, indeed, it would make a good idea to reveal each other's feeling as soon as possible, if, let's say the worst outcome took place; the two of us no longer seeing each other after this. Sure, it would leave a scar that would take ages, if not, forever to heal if one were to lose a better half of their own. But at least, there was nothing left unspoken.
I guess it's the matter of the regret of being unable to reveal your truest feelings to someone because the person is already dead versus having already revealed that but you are left with a mental scar that you will most likely never heal from. But then again, either condition would still scar you severely if the person were to be gone from your life.
Perhaps, Anna's decision might not be as terrible as it sounded previously.
Maybe I should be 'eyeing' for an opportunity, like Elsa said, from now.
Or I should just compose the words first.
Ever since then, I started imagining of what I had to say. I would practice it in private, but onboard, there were only the three of us and a Terrible Terror. There was no such thing as privacy except when we really had to be private to do our own errands.
Not that I was complaining. Initially, I expected the atmosphere between us would be dense, or awkward, but Anna remained so… Anna-esque. She was still the bubbly queen I knew, even bubblier, to be frank. I have never seen a person with more energy while sailing, since sailing could get very boring. However, we kept ourselves entertained, either intentionally or unintentionally. One time, Blue nearly burned my bed, and Elsa was having a horse ride with Nokk far away to put away the fire. The other time, Anna once again put too much mayonnaise in our sandwiches. The other other time, we played charades until Anna fell asleep on the deck.
We had a lot of time for ourselves to bond, put it simply.
And right now, it was nearing dawn. The sun was on the far east, rising ever so slowly. I was on my shift, standing alone by the wheel.
My eyes spotted something far ahead. It took a while for me to make out, but it was soon as clear as crystal. The archipelago that I was very fond of. Old Berk.
"I'm home."
Now, I would like you guys to look up "Frozen 2: Kristoff's Lie" on YouTube. It explains a concept of Nokk that never made it to the movie. As Anna explained, Nokk would drag people who have lies in their hearts into the water. Very hardcore indeed. Though it would've been a great arc for Nokk in the movie, I can't see this making it to a movie where the audience are mostly children. Thank you for reading! I know it's a short chapter, but I had no intention of squeezing anything into this very chapter.
