Anna's POV
"WHOAAAAAAAA—"
I could swear it was the highest drop I've ever experienced in my life; it felt longer than the one I experienced with Kristoff after Marshmallow told us to go away. I had my eyes shut in the entire time until I landed on something soft. Only after I opened my eyes and felt the texture of my landing spot did I realize that I landed on snow. I wonder whose doing it was.
I really did wonder because it was pitch black.
"Guys? Are you guys alive? Oh please tell me you're alive!" I asked to the darkness. The 'darkness' replied with echoes of my sentences before I could hear groans from it.
"Ughh… Snow?" That sounded like Eret, since he had a deep voice and this was deep as well.
"Phew, I made it just in time!" This sounded like Elsa. They sounded like they were okay.
"Elsa! Eret! Thank goodness!" I cheered, standing up. "Where's Hiccup?"
I looked left and right, up and down, and found not even any sign of light to rely on. Looking at nothing in the darkness was not the most pleasant experience to date. Each second was starting to mentally affect me from anxiety caused by the darkness and the absence of Hiccup.
"Hiccup?!" I called. I then remembered something, my inferno blade! I grabbed it from my belt and pressed the button to pull out the blade itself. With another press of a different button, I ignited the flame on it.
Big mistake.
"WHOA!—WHAT'S GOING ON?!"
The flame of the blade was so blazing, its force trashed me around as if I was nothing. I then remembered what Hiccup did to the canisters that contained the fuel of the fire previously, which was Valka's dragon's saliva. It made me spun and spun, but it did light the interior of the place we were in, and though only for a split second, I saw my sister, Eret, and last but not least, Hiccup, who was still trying to regain his composure.
I put off the fire after managing to reach for it. My head was spinning.
"Let me do the lighting, Anna," Elsa spoke. Inside the darkness, she summoned a flurry of frost which emitted light. Despite with my spinning head, I saw Eret behind her, looking in awe at the frost she summoned.
With the lighting Elsa provided, I looked again for Hiccup. There he was, kneeling on a pile of snow. Next to him was the wreckage of the elevator, completely destroyed due to the fall.
I rushed over to his side. "Hiccup! Are you okay?"
"Ugh… never felt better," he dusted off the debris on his shoulder. I helped him stand up afterwards.
"I told you not to ignite it," Hiccup said, gesturing to the blade in my hand.
"Well, sorry… I forgot," I replied. "Geez… that was quite the fall, not sure we're in the chamber where we found the elevator though…" I looked around.
"Yeah… where are we, chief?" Eret asked.
With the limited lighting, I could not see the ends of the environment we were in. All I could see was a level ground, which had weird patterns on it, as if something once flowed and froze. When I looked up, it was nothing but pitch black again.
"I don't know… Elsa, could you somehow summon bigger ice with brighter light?" Hiccup requested.
"One bigger ice with brighter light comin' up," Elsa replied. With a wave of hand, she tossed a large icicle upwards, which never seemed to stop for a good ten seconds until it made contact with something. Once contacting, the icicle turned into smaller pieces and spread across all directions, emitting much brighter lighting in the environment. We could see everything now.
That's the moment when I learned that the rest of the environment was exactly the same as the one I spotted before Elsa sent the icicle. We were inside a giant roughly circular room in which its floor is made out of overlapping frozen minerals that I couldn't recognize what.
"Any idea what this is, Hiccup?" I asked.
Hiccup knelt down and grabbed a pinch of a gravels. "This is volcanic mineral."
My jaw dropped. "Wait, what?"
"This whole room is… frozen lava. The smell, the air," he sniffed the air, "it's very distinct. It's volcanic. And if you listen closely…"
He raised a finger and focused on his hearing alone. We did the same thing and realized of one strange constant noise emitting from below the ground. It sounded like something was moving from underneath. Things were about to turn worse.
"It's… active?" Elsa asked.
"I'm afraid…" Hiccup breathed. "The whole island is one giant… volcano. I never knew that…"
The Viking looked up, pointing to the same direction. That's when we noticed there was a hole on the ceiling of the room. "We fell from the very top. The elevator apparently breached a hole on the floor, which I never noticed was that thin, and we fell into the hole, into this, well, frozen crater, I suppose."
"I hope our fall didn't cause it to trigger or anything…" Elsa spoke, worry screaming in her tone.
"I don't think so. It will take a bigger force to trigger the volcano," he dusted off his hand from the volcanic mineral he had. "Not that I'm hoping there will be one, though. Goodness, New Berk is basically one giant volcano."
"Whoa…" I responded.
The four of us processed the newly founded information in silence. I knelt down to meet the literal volcanic floor. This was something new in my life, since I only have heard of information of volcano, but have never seen one even from a distance. And here I am, sitting inside one.
"Well, we learn something new every day," I spoke, shattering the silence. "Today, we learned where Therondia kept the dragons, and New Berk is one giant active volcano. That's certainly going to drop some jaws," I shrugged.
"It's already making mine drop, that's for sure," Eret added.
"And mine," Elsa added, chuckling slightly.
I looked to Hiccup, waiting for a response from him. "Well, I'm more like terrified, to be completely frank."
"Well, I'd be too," I chuckled. "But let's focus on getting out of here, shall we?"
"We shall," Hiccup replied, looking up. "How are we gonna reach up there?"
"I think I can come up with something…" Elsa spoke, grabbing her chin. She gestured to all of us to come over, "Get close, people."
I was sure neither of us knew what she had on mind, but we trusted her and followed her command. We approached her and remained so. With a stomp to the ground, Elsa summoned her magic from below. Suddenly, a giant ice pillar materialized from underneath, towering upwards slowly with us on the very top. The provided space right on top of it was enough for the four of us, so we still could move freely.
The speed of the ice pillar taking us upwards was relatively slow, but sure. Seeing so, all of us sat down while looking at our destination.
"Well, your magic never stops to amaze, Your Majesty," Hiccup complimented.
"I'd say the same," Eret added.
"Thank you, boys," Elsa smiled.
"I think I already know the replacement for the broken elevator, too," Hiccup crossed his arms confidently.
Once we reached the top, each of us climbed the hole that the elevator made. With a little boost from Elsa magic, I hopped onto the elevator chamber seamlessly, though almost slipping on the process, which gave Hiccup, Elsa, and Eret a heart attack.
We made our way back to the basecamp with the same route we took. Through narrow gaps, low grounds, climbs, we eventually reached the destination without any problem. There, everyone was minding their own business; either training, or chilling, or sleeping.
Hiccup called for an immediate gathering once we arrived back at the basecamp. Everyone was already on their feet since they were so curious of what we had to say after the recon mission we had embarked to. Once everyone had been gathered, I sat next to Hiccup and he began his speech.
"Right, so, we learned a thing or two after out outing. First, yes, it's positive. Therondia sadly have captured some dragons. I roughly counted there were…" He began murmuring numbers under his breath to make a guess.
"I think there were around fifty?" I guessed.
"I think it's seventy. Yeah, seventy," he faced the crowd again. "Seventy dragons, I believe. Nadders, Timberjacks, Gronckles, many more."
"Where are they kept?" Astrid asked.
"In the village hall," Hiccup replied.
"The village hall?" Valka replied, raising an eyebrow in disbelief at the information.
Hiccup shrugged. "Or what used to be the village hall, I suppose. Therondia have done some redecorating. They kept the entrance, but that's it… the rest is completely redone. It's turned into one giant dome, housing the dragons in cages. Now in the dome, we found some information as well. About the… black dust…"
Hiccup paused himself and turned to me. "Wait, did we find any more information about that weird substance?"
"The what?" I asked.
"The black dust. The one that was said to use to control the dragons," he reminded.
"Oh… that. No, I don't think we found anything about it," I shrugged.
"Okay…" the chief turned back to his people. "Never mind that. We also found that they were going for the two hundred quota mark. After reaching that number, they will begin shipping to wherever these dragons are demanded. We saw a list of rulers from places we've never heard, and we believe these are the buyers of these dragons. We cannot allow that."
A pause took place.
"What are you planning on doing?" Fishleg asked.
"We free the dragons after the last shipment from the Hidden World arrives. I believe they are to arrive within three days?" He glanced to me, asking for confirmation. I nodded at him.
"Three days. We will set a patrol to keep an eye to the east to see when they arrive. When they do, we wait until they bring the cages onto the ships, and that's when the ambush begins," Hiccup exclaimed, optimism sounding very clearly in his voice. His confidence spread the same thing to his listeners as they shouted 'woohoo' and yeah'.
He continued. "I also have planned it to the detail, too. Mind you, the cages used to keep the dragons are incredibly strong. The bars are thicker than the ones Grimmel's army used to have. So, I need to remind you to break the hinges of the cages, not the lock nor the bars. It's the weakest point of these cages. Luckily, there was a dragon with a saliva strong enough to do the job by melting it quickly."
He eyed at his mother, who had no idea of what he had to say. It was quite the wholesome scene, if you ask.
"Mom… There was a Stormcutter," he said. The news immediately brightened the woman's face.
"Cloudjumper?!" She asked.
"Yeah!" Her son confirmed.
Valka smiled widely for a moment, but for another moment, she turned it into a frown, though eventually she just shook her head with a puzzled look. "I don't know if I'm supposed to be happy or not, knowing my dragon has been captured. I can't be happy for that, can I?"
Everyone proceeded to laugh at Valka's statement. So did I.
"Well, you can be happy for the fact that your dragon is okay, and has great companies as well," I added. "He was kept with Toothless and the um… the pregnant Light Fury, you said?" I turned to Hiccup, who nodded afterwards.
"Toothless?! And the Light Fury?" Astrid asked. "Pregnant, you said?"
I chuckled uneasily. "Yeah… it appeared so."
Everybody gave Hiccup a judging stare, as if he was responsible for what Toothless had done. It was quite the funny sight, seeing that Hiccup noticed it and gave them 'how am I responsible for that?' look. But I kept my giggles inside.
"Anywayyy… I took some of Cloudjumper's saliva and I'm planning to make a device for you all to cut through the metal with this thing as the fuel. We did bring some of the old blacksmith equipment, right?" He asked. The Berkians didn't seem so sure about the answer, and it was noticeable.
"We did not?" Hiccup asked.
"Well, a few. You can see it inside the hull of our ship," Valka answered. "Hopefully it will do."
A sigh escaped Hiccup's mouth. "Very well. One last thing… um…" he fixed his sitting position. I could tell he was about to tell the most absurd news of all.
"Some of you may not believe this but… bear with me, and trust me, we are not crazy," Hiccup warned. It only drew more curiosity from the audience, judging from the fact that they moved closer to us.
"On our way back, obviously, we used the elevator back to descend to this level. However, since we never really took care of the elevator for years, the elevator broke and we fell down into the bottom of the elevator chamber," Hiccup explained. The moment he mentioned about us falling down made some listeners gasp. "Or at least, we thought we had fallen into the bottom of the elevator chamber. Apparently, after the elevator and the machinery collapsed, the impact made a hole on the floor of the chamber. We, on our way down, fell into the hole, and landed in an entire room…" Hiccup paused, "Safely! Thanks to Elsa and her magic."
We turned to Elsa, who was leaning against a rock alone in the corner while listening to Hiccup's story. She nodded as in 'you're welcome'.
"In the room, we discovered this," Hiccup pulled out a rock from his pocket. The rock was a random one picked from the very room in discussion, chosen as a representative of what he was about to tell. "This is a bit of the frozen lava we have discovered."
"Lava?..." Tuffnut asked. "Like the one a volcano spits?"
"Uh huh," Hiccup nodded. "We landed in a giant room, filled with nothing but frozen lava. Underneath, we heard magma activity. Yes, what I'm saying is… New Berk is one giant volcano, ladies and gentlemen."
Fishleg came over to examine the very rock Hiccup possessed. In his face horror screamed. "This is… frozen lava. Are you saying that New Berk can blow up anytime?"
"I don't think so. I think it will take a large force to really awaken the volcano," Hiccup replied.
Everybody murmured to each other, conveying worry to one another. Hiccup, on the other hand, didn't seem to show any sign of worry whatsoever, as if he was never scared of this very newly found fact.
"But this changes nothing. We stick to the plan. That is all."
Hiccup hopped off the rock we were sat on, turning to me. "I'm going to begin making the device. What cha goin' to do?"
"Uhh… I was thinking I could train more today. I'll help you out later when I'm done," I replied.
He smiled. "Sounds good."
I trained for hours, from noon to sunset. At least, I thought the sun was setting. The lighting inside the cave was minimum to begin with, making it harder to tell what time it really was. Only a small amount of sunlight made it through the harsh waterfall from afar.
Ever since I grabbed my Arendellian shield from my compartment, I really had to change my combat style. Aggressive style was a big no-go for me, since I had to take the weight of my shield into account. It was a heavy object, but it was so for a purpose, a purpose that's been proven useful. To shield me from attacks, of course.
I managed to block more attack, which of course would give me windows to counter the attack. Heck, this shield blocked a full swing of Astrid's axe, for Pete's sake. That was a moment of a heart attack, I must say. Astrid really didn't hold back.
Overall, my close combat skills were sharpening. And my opponents confirmed that.
Though, hearing that the Therondians slayed nearly every Viking there was did send a chill up my spine. Vikings are already really good in close combat, to begin with. I couldn't imagine Therondia. The reason we won against the Therondians when we arrived was because we outnumbered them.
Having changed my attire since the old one was stained with my sweats, I made my way to the Viking ship. The Therondian we kept as a hostage was asleep, so I ignored him. Valka mentioned that the workshop was located inside the ship's hull. It took me a while to realize that there was a hatch on the floor that led to the hull itself, since I was so used to having no hatch.
I lifted the hatch and made my way down the set of stairs underneath it. Inside, it was musky and smokey. It took me a while to really scan the environment thoroughly and clearly.
"Hiccup?" I called.
"Oh hey! Over here!"
I turned around and saw the man himself, a candle lit next to him. He was stood next to a table of his 'workshop', which consisted of a stone to forge steel, the table, and a bucket of water. That was it.
"This is the workshop?" I asked, approaching him.
He sighed. "It is what it is…"
I laid my chin on his shoulder, hugging the Viking from behind. "Seems… minimalistic."
"Hey, you've been doing more battle cries," Hiccup smirked, slightly turning to me.
"Mental game. Ever heard of it?" I smirked back.
"Heh, yeah. I'd say your eyes are doing a better mental game than your battle cries," he looked into my eyes. In return, I glared, in a playful manner, of course.
"Yeah, I wouldn't survive three minutes with that," Hiccup sarcastically added, proceeding to continue forging this piece of tubular looking thing on the forging table. I chuckled at the joke, finding what he was working on interesting afterwards.
"Did you have any help from anybody?" I asked.
"Tuffnut… wasn't much of a help, I'm afraid," he replied. I snorted unintentionally, since his behavior could really turn 'helpful'.
"Hahah… Anybody else?"
"Nope. Just me, and the hammer of Thor," he gestured to his hammer before giving the tube a swing.
"YOUCH!"
The Viking pulled his right hand and fanned it. That's when I realized he just swung his hammer onto his fingers.
"Oh shit—you're okay?" I tried to reach for his hand, but he hid it away between his legs.
"Mmmfft—barely? Faen i HELVETE—"
Hiccup just swore in his own tongue, a tongue that I had zero knowledge in. My mind began to think of a solution for this, and the very first one to come was the best one!
"I know! Gimme a minute, will ya?" I spoke. I dashed my way back to the deck and off of the ship. I looked around to find my sister and there she was, sitting by the bonfire with some Vikings and performing a show with her magic. As always.
"Elsa!" I called, rushing over to her side.
She looked at me with slight concern. "What? What?"
"A snowball, please," I requested.
Not just Elsa, but everyone else raised their brows at my request.
"What for?" Tuffnut asked. "It's not winter yet."
Elsa inevitably snorted at Tuffnut's statement. "Pfft… what for?"
"Uhh… Hiccup hit his own hand with his hammer. Hence, the snowball," I explained.
Her eyes rounded right away. "Oh, that must've hurt. Here."
With a dance of her hands, Elsa summoned a snowball. A pretty large one. I had to carry it with both hands in order not to drop it.
"Thanks!" I dashed my way back to the Viking ship. I had a hard time climbing onboard since both of my hands had to hold the snowball. I descended down the wooden stairs and found him still holding his dear hand.
"Here…" I spoke while approaching him.
"Ah… smart…" he complimented.
I gently placed the snowball on top of his right hand. However, even with my utmost gentle manner, the snowball crumbled into pieces, falling down onto the floor.
"Aw come on, Elsa! You had to summon a bad snowball," I complained. Kneeling down on the floor, I gathered the snow with my hands.
"Ah ha ha… Oh Thor…" Hiccup chuckled, though pain was still sounding clearly in his chuckle. He knelt down and helped me out in the process. I placed the snow I gathered on top of his hand and made sure it stayed there by pressing it.
"Better?" I asked.
"Yeah…" He leaned in and kissed me by the hair. "Thank you."
The room temperature was hot, to begin with. And it turned hotter. For me, at the very least.
I smiled at him. "You're welcome. I distracted you real good, didn't I?"
"You certainly did, I'll give you that," he chuckled. "Oh no, now I can't protect myself from the swords and arrows of my enemies. Who will ever protect me from the mercilessness of my enemy? Oh deary me, for I am so doomed in this instance! If only a knight in a shining armor can help this helpless and poor soul!"
His dramatic flair earned my claps. It was exactly what a princess would say to a handsome knight in a shining armor.
I decided to join in. "Oh do not fear, poor one! I am here, in my shining armor, to help you. Not with my sword, nor my shield, but with this."
I cleared a bit of snow off of his fingers and kissed them.
I looked up to him. It was a bit hard to make out, but I saw a tint of red on his cheeks. Hiccup blushing, that's new.
Before I could even blink, Hiccup pulled me into a kiss.
I welcomed it, and we proceeded to kiss each other passionately. We were pushing against each other, but his heavier weight made me lose grip of the floor and have his entire weight collapsed on mine own. I pulled his head to deepen our kiss even more. His lips, his hot breath, I want more.
"Ouch!"
We pulled away, Hiccup looking at his right hand in which he tried to support his own weight with it. Seeing so, he pulled me back up. We stared to each other until we chuckled simultaneously.
"What did we just do…" he asked.
"More like, what did you just do, kind sir?" I mocked.
"Oh I'm sorry, am I not allowed to have my heart touched by the mere sight of my love giving me affection in the most wholesome way ever, a kiss on my hand?" Hiccup replied. I chuckled at his statement that had too much syllables in it, shaking my head afterwards. I really am dating this guy.
"I have set the camp, by the way," I stated.
"What camp?" He asked.
"Our camp," I added.
Once again, the rare sight of Hiccup blushing appeared! "Oh, okay. Cool. Where did you, um, set it?"
"Next to Elsa's."
"And where is Elsa's camp again?" He asked.
"You'll see."
He shook his head, as if he knew that I had something under sleeve, which I did.
"Right… I gotta get back to work," he stood up, grabbing the hammer back. I followed his lead.
"I'll help!"
"Okay, let me teach you how to forge… Ah crap, we're already running out of fresh metal, though…" he complained while looking at a stash of metal, in which it had only a few.
"How many have you made?" I asked.
"Uhh… enough only for… six of you. Still need plenty more," he scratched his hair. "I guess I'll have to salvage from elsewhere. All right! Here's your hammer—"
He was cut when loud footsteps descended down the stairs from behind us. It was Fishleg, seemingly nearly running out of his breath.
"H-Hiccup! Shhh!" He warned. "There's a Therondian ship entering the waterfall!"
"Wait, what?"
Somehow, when i look up to the crossover section between frozen and HTTYD, i do not see my story there. Is it just me or somebody else not seeing it in there as well?
