Anna's POV
I opened my eyes, and I was greeted by the ceiling of my room.
I could tell that I was asleep for merely a few hours, but weirdly, my body felt no need for any more extra sleep.
But then I noticed; I was greeted by the ceiling, which I could barely see before I went to bed because of the pitch-black darkness the rain was giving. I bolted upright and turned to my window, and there it was, sunrise, with almost no clouds. It appeared that the rain from last night had completely lifted off, allowing sunlight to reach the earth seamlessly. I was prepared to face a day with almost no sunlight just because of how thick the clouds were.
"Mh…"
I looked down and barely noticed the sight of Hiccup's bare back, his bottom half enveloped in the blanket. That's when I noticed that my own bottom half was exposed, so I quickly hid it under the blanket. This reminded me of what happened last night.
He wanted to call it a day at the Olsen's, but I didn't allow him and forced him to do it in my bedroom, instead. My instinct as a loveless lover told me to do so, and luckily, Hiccup was obedient. After arriving, the rest was history.
Seeing Hiccup was still snoring softly, I scooched over to his side and planted a kiss on his shoulder and another one on his hair. He didn't even seem to notice the gesture, to which I didn't want him to as I got off the bed to put on a dress. My hero must've done some tiring fighting against the Therondians.
While dressing up, I heard some chattering from the courtyard, in which my window a gave a view of. Having finished dressing up, I looked over to the courtyard and noticed probably almost all servants of the castle sweeping the place with brooms. Apparently, the rain had left a big mess all over the castle. The roof was covered in ash, and so was the courtyard, the walls, everything! One particularly most noticeable spot was the stain of volcanic ash all over my own window, which was in a need of a desperate cleaning.
Among the crowd, I spotted both Elsa and Cassandra, doing the same thing as everybody else; cleaning the courtyard. They were three quarters done with the job, roughly, and I didn't want to miss out.
I rushed out of my room and exited the castle through the main entrance. I approached the crowd while greeting good morning's here and there to see my sister. She and Cassandra spotted my arrival right away.
"Good morning sis," Elsa greeted, continuing to sweep the floor.
"Good morning, Your Highness," Cassandra added.
"Mornin'," I replied. "Can someone give me a broom as well? I don't want to be left out," I asked.
"Here you are, Anna," a voice replied from behind, which turned out to be Gerda. I accepted her broom with a smile.
"Thank you, Gerda," I said, and she replied with a nod and walked off to probably get another broom for herself. With that, I started cleaning.
"How long have you guys been doing this?" I asked the two.
Cassandra stuck her bottom lip out. "An hour? With all hands on deck, this is relatively quick, though, considering the width of the place we have to cover."
"You two woke up early?" I asked again.
"Yeah, pretty much," Elsa smiled.
I stopped sweeping briefly. "But have you two had enough rest yet?" I asked, concern drawing on my face. "Elsa, are you not dizzy or something?"
"Perhaps the battle brushed it off," Cassandra snorted. "It's almost magical that you actually woke up. Can't imagine what it would've been like had you not done so. We would've had to carry you around."
Elsa shrugged, smiling a smile that seemed to acknowledge Cassandra's response. "What she said."
"A'ight, whatever floats your boat," I shrugged. "But don't force yourself—whoa!"
I was cut when out of nowhere, a Night Fury walked past me on his two hind feet while biting a broom to 'swipe' the floor. His reckless and zig-zag movement caused the others to make way for the big dragon. Either he was actually sweeping the ground of using the broom to make drawings, only Hiccup would be able to tell.
"Who gave the dragon a broom?" I asked.
My sister lifted her hand. "I did."
"I don't think he's helping a lot…" I said, watching Toothless accidentally sweeping a servant's foot with his tail and causing him to lose balance. Not realizing his mistake, the dragon kept on dancing with his broom and bumping onto more people.
"He is trying his best," Elsa replied. "It will be alright, Anna. Later, he will be able to help us clean the roofs."
I shrugged at the idea. "I mean, yeah…"
"Let's just finish this really quick, Anna," Elsa said. "The quicker we finish the courtyard, the quicker we get to the village."
I turned to her rapidly. "You mean we're going to clean the village as well?"
"Only the streets," Kai replied. "Besides, volcanic ashes are useful for the soils. Do you remember your geography class lessons, my queen?" He smirked dirtily.
I chuckled uneasily. "Ehe… yeah?"
"Good then," Kai replied.
Only after a defeated sigh did I finally continue my work again. I knew for a fact that the streets of Arendelle stretched for kilometers, and it could only mean a long day of hard work ahead. For the first time in forever, I actually wished I could just face the paperwork for the time being. But ashes were more important, I guess.
After a few more moments of sweeping, we finally finished the area. Though I didn't participate on the whole work, I could tell that the hard work really paid off. The original colors of the architecture really came to life.
"Alright, let's go to the streets?" I asked everybody.
Everybody nodded. With that cleared out, the guards opened the main gate. I led everybody out, and as I was doing so, I already spotted the work ahead that needed working. The bridge was covered in the same volcanic ash, and so was the lamps. Up ahead, I could see the houses in the village was in the same state as well, but surprisingly, the villagers were already out of their houses to clean things out as well. To finish the works ahead quicker, I came up with an idea to divide the servants. I divided them to work on different areas evenly, and the last group, aka myself, Cassandra, and Elsa to work with whichever we desired.
After understanding the instructions, my servants set off, except for the ones that were to take care of the bridge. Cassandra, Elsa, Toothless, out of nowhere, and I set off to whoever we could find that needed helping. Luckily, we were already fond with Night Fury. Once reaching the village area, we went over to the statue of my parents that had very few people cleaning it. The villagers noticed our presences. It was most likely due to Toothless, but once they spotted us, they began to clap.
"My Queens, thank you!"
"Queen Anna, Queen Elsa! You have our gratitude!"
"Your Majesty! Thank you for protecting the kingdom once again!"
"Queen Anna! Thank you!"
Initially, I simply replied with a wave of hand until I reached to the point where a lot more people showed up to express the same thing. They shook our hands, bowed before us, any gesture to show gratitude. It got overwhelming pretty soon. Some of the ones who couldn't make through of the crowd clapped their hands, making the atmosphere more and more alive by the second.
I really wanted to get out of the crowd, but I had no idea of how to do so politely. But then my hero came, Toothless, who growled loudly enough to scare the crowd, creating a room for us to literally breathe.
"Toothless," I caught the dragon by the head and pulled him away. "It's okay… shh…"
I looked up to the crowd, fear coloring their expressions. "I'm sorry for that. But really…" I scratched my hair, smiling sheepishly. "It wasn't just me. I had a lot of people watching over my back—"
On the corner of my vision, I spotted two familiar figures in the crowd. Valka and Astrid. They were watching my 'speech' curiously.
"Valka! Astrid!" I waved a hand, gesturing them to come over. "Come here!"
Showing hesitance initially, the duo eventually walked through the crowd to reach us. I made them face the crowd around. "These two are just a few of the Vikings that helped us out! Without them, I couldn't have survived out there," I said with a little intended dramatic tone for dramatic purposes. My listeners nodded their heads and clapped their hands. The duo of Vikings merely bowed before them.
"Not to mention," I gestured to Cassandra, who seemed to be nervous by the crowd. "Cassandra of Therondia," I emphasized her origin, and the name made the crowd frown instantly. "You heard that right. But without her masterclass acting, she wouldn't have been able to save my sister."
"Oh Anna, you're making me blush," Cassandra replied.
"See? Masterclass acting!" I chuckled a little.
"And the royal guards! And my sister, too!" I gestured to my sister. "I noticed some of you only thanking me, not my sister. Yeah, at one point, she did seem like a helpless damsel in distress," I commented. That earned a burst of laughter and a 'friendly' nudge on my side by Elsa. "But her spirit friends came to rescue! Not to mention she also sank the ships—"
"Okay, Anna, no need to mention that," Elsa cut in.
"Ah, okay—" I quickly acknowledged. "And of course… the chief of Berk himself… who's still asleep, I'm afraid. But he'll join us pretty soon, I bet."
"Your Highness!"
Out from the crowd came Lady Olsen, seemingly eager to say something. "We were thinking about celebrating this victory! How about a dinner with the WHOLE kingdom?"
My eyes widened at the suggestion. I looked to the other villagers and they seemed to either clueless about the idea most likely because it was Lady Olsen's own idea but was drawn into the idea or they really had done a briefing together previously and agreed with the proposal. Maybe it was mix between the two.
"Umm… the entire people?" I asked.
"Yes! The guards, the servants, the housewives, the kids, heck, the pets, everybody!" She proposed. "We were thinking about placing tables and benches along the main street in a line formation. From the most western part of the street to the most eastern part. Lit every street lamp to make the night alive. We cook in every kitchen there is in the kingdom. It will be amazing!"
It would be a horror of logistics. And manual labors. Though, yes, it sounded like the best idea there was. I could picture the delicious foods and the amazing atmosphere, but we still had a ton of cleaning to do. However, the radiant eagerness of the villagers beat me.
"All right… I guess, each family can have one person cooking in the kitchen," I instructed,
"YEAHHHH!"
but was interrupted right away with a big cheering of the villagers. I gestured them to listen to me.
"I will have to fetch with the other servants to start cooking as well, if we want them to finish before nightfall. The others will continue cleaning the village, and after that, we proceed to decorate the street. Along the main street, you said, Lady Olsen?" I asked.
"Along the main street," the lady confirmed.
"Very well. Dinner at eight. Don't miss it out!" I smiled. Once again, they cheered at the top of their lungs and spread to share the news to the other villagers. After they all returned to their work stations, I let out a relieved sigh.
"Goodness… that was completely out of nowhere…" I said.
"Well, it's been a while as well since we last had a feast with everybody, to be fair," Elsa replied, beginning to sweep the area around the statue.
"I will tell Mrs. Hoffman to join cooking as well," Astrid spoke out of nowhere, pointing her thumb to the back. "And Anna… thank you."
"Awe, you're welcome," I smiled and hugged the Viking. She returned the hug briefly before heading over to my sister.
"And you too, Elsa," she hugged my sister and let go to Cassandra.
"And, Cassandra, too, of course," she hugged. "I didn't get the chance to do it last night. Thought now was the best timing."
"You're very much welcome, fellow Berkian," Cassandra smiled proudly.
With that, she dashed off to somewhere where Mrs. Hoffman might be. I watched her with a warm smile until she disappeared to a corner.
"Is Hiccup really not awake yet?" Valka asked as she began to clean the statue with a piece of wet cloth.
"No… he's still somewhere inside the dreamland," I scoffed to myself, joining her.
"Weird, he's usually quite the early bird," she commented.
"Ehh… you gotta make an exception for this. He just arrived from the Hidden World. Really, Toothless is supposed to be the one who's not awake yet," I replied.
"I'd say it's pretty even between the two," Cassandra added. "After all… he did slay King Adam."
My eyes bulged right away. "He did?! You didn't tell me!"
Cassandra shrugged innocently. "I guess that detail slipped away."
"King who?" Valka asked.
I turned to her. "King Adam… he's the king of Therondia."
She gave the same reaction I made, though she was frozen for a couple of moments longer than I was. "Oh my… that's…"
Relieving? Heroic? Amazing?
She suddenly waved it off. "In the past," she completed, continuing her work on the statue. Perhaps Valka would like to keep her truest impression of the statement to herself, to which I decided to simply respect her choice. For a few moments, we shared no talks whatsoever to focus on the statue. At one point, Kai showed up to ask the clarity of the newly shared news of the sudden plan for the dinner. I clarified the news and he was slightly taken aback, to which I could merely giggle at. I requested him to book a table for me near the statue before he left to continue to work.
"Say… what happened to the other remaining Therondians, again?" Valka asked.
I turned to the one who might be responsible, Elsa. "What happened?"
She let out a sigh. "I sank their ships, that's all. I guess the surviving Therondians are the ones who could swim. Simple as that."
"So you're saying that there are roaming Therondians out there in the wilderness?" I asked.
"I'm saying that there are harmless and leaderless Therondians out there," Elsa replied. At this, I didn't agree at all.
"They're still a threat… we need to send guards to search every last of them. Who knows what they're up to now," I crossed my arms. "I mean—whoops!"
I felt a sudden breeze of wind blowing past my sides, followed with several autumn leaves. The wind blew past the others, too, in a manner that could've only signified that it was Gale.
"Hello Gale~!" I greeted.
After sounding a playful chirping, the air spirit circled around the statue, and in the process, lifting the ashes all over it, too! Seamlessly, the wind carried the ashes to somewhere else. After doing so, the fun spirit did the same with the rest of the village. Magically, every bit of ash lifted off onto the air and was tossed off to the nearest soils. We spectated the spirit of air doing wonders in wonder, until within minutes, the view as far as I could see down the street was already free from volcanic ash!
"Oh thank you so much Gale!" I exclaimed. The spirit of air chirped and hovered before us. Afterwards, the spirit suddenly blew past us from behind, making us walk forward to the street.
"Whoa, where are you taking us, Gale?" Elsa asked. "Easy, we can walk on our own!"
Hearing the command, the spirit eased itself. With a gentle breeze, the spirit directed us to a direction it only knew.
"Where do you think it's taking us?" I asked my sister.
"No idea," she shrugged.
We simply followed along the spirit until we eventually reached the dock. The spirit kept on directing us, and finally, I could see where it was taking us.
"This was your ship, right, Cassandra?" I asked to the Therondian.
She nodded. "Mhm. Looks like Gale wants us to climb onboard."
"This had better not be another sailing trip," I said grudgingly. "I really have had enough…"
In the same manner, I walked up the wooden plank to reach the ship. Once reaching the deck, my jaw dropped to the floor to the sight of Therondian soldiers laying on the floor. Every bit of the floor was covered by the bodies of these Therondians. Immediately, I thought that they were corpses, so I jerked away from the sight.
"Please tell me these are not corpses…" I said. Valka, Cassandra, and Elsa were still brave enough to look at the odd sight, though they looked disgusted, too.
"They're not."
We turned to the source of the voice, where surprisingly, Queen Ida of Therondia was there. For a woman, she was a stunner, even with the soggy and slightly ripped dress she was in.
"They're all merely asleep," she gave us a sharp stare while having her arms crossed, despite the fact that they were defeated fair and square.
"Ah… okay," I cleared my throat. "Queen Ida, how did you reach this ship?"
"That windy friend of yours picked us up. He carried every survivor to this ship. But I have to admit that I have no idea how he put them into sleep," she sighed. "I was the only one whom he didn't put into sleep. Perhaps he wanted me to meet you. Awake."
"That might very well be the case," I shrugged.
Her eyes rolled to lock onto Valka, then to Cassandra. "How convenient. A Berkian and a… traitor," she said sharply.
"Warning…" Elsa warned, lifting her arm that suddenly had a flurry of ice. I gently took her arm away.
"Easy now, Els…" I spoke softly. Luckily, she was obedient.
"GRAWR!"
All of us looked up to the central mast where a Night Fury was hanging on, glaring to the Queen of Therondia sharply. The Queen immediately took a few steps back.
I looked up to the queen and cleared my throat. "Don't mind the dragon. Have you done some counting? How many of them are there?"
She turned to me, still occasionally looking up at Toothless to keep track of the dragon's movement. "…Seventy-five. Not many escaped the sudden fire," she looked away. "I assume that's one of your friends, too?"
Damn, Bruni…
"Yeah…" I brushed my forearms uneasily, knowing that the spirit had laid genocide upon the Therondians, as much as they were our enemy. The thought was never going to leave anytime soon.
"So? What happens now? Since they're asleep, might as well take advantage of that and put an end to their lives, right?" Queen Ida suggested. For a moment, I processed the proposal before throwing it out of the window.
"No," I replied sternly. My response seemed to take the queen by a slight surprise.
I stepped forward, facing the queen with a stare I did not break even with a blink. "Gale, the air spirit, will take this ship with you guys onboard. Where to? I don't know, nor do I care. One thing for sure, it will be far away. Consider this mercy as a message, not as a chance for you to pull another merciless action. Take into account as well that there are seventy-five of you, and there were only sixteen Berkians that made it out alive from your raid."
Ida remained silent.
"Have I made myself clear?" I asked, still connecting a gaze with her.
"…Crystal."
"Good," I replied and turned around, eyeing the trio to get off the ship. "Come, we have no more business here…"
"And… thank you, Queen Anna."
I froze for a moment before turning around to her. However, I was too late as I only caught a glimpse of her making her way to her cabin. I never thought such expression would come out of the mouth of a queen that smug, but apparently, it just happened right before me.
I sighed while smiling, turning around again to Cassandra, Valka, and Elsa. "Come."
With that, we got off the ship. Right away, the sails of the ship began to expand to the blow of wind Gale was summoning. Its harsh power made the ship exit the bay within moments as it slowly became a mere dot on the horizon while exiting the fjord.
"Hm. The village is cleaned. We sent off the remaining Therondians to let them decide their fate. What's next?" Elsa asked.
I scoffed. "Dear, we have some cooking to do. Let's help the cook out!"
"Oh dear…" Cassandra sighed.
"What, you can't cook, Cassandra?" I asked, smiling challengingly.
"I can cook. It's just, I have a feeling that this will not be the most sanitary cooking experience in the world," she smirked. "Yes, I'm prejudging, but my feelings are usually correct."
"You're pretty much correct, yeah," Elsa added. "Anna and I once tried to learn how to bake. Safe to say that she came out covered in cream and chocolate more than I was."
Recalling the memory was a dirty move by my sister. "Oh come on, Elsa… you really had to mention that?"
Cassandra burst in laughter. "Ohoho… I'm interested. Alright, it will be fun, I guess," she shrugged, walking off to the village.
"Oh, you also may call me Cass from now on. Three syllables, tiring, right?"
Hiccup's POV
It was probably the longest sleep I've ever had in my entire life.
My muscles were practically frozen. It was getting dark, which probably meant I slept during the entire day until sundown. However, it was probably long needed, though yes, I woke up with the same 'tired' feeling that I had before going to sleep.
To cast the feeling out, I immediately had myself washed with cold water. Anna seemed to have a lot of bath tools that I didn't really recognize their functions. I mainly used the running water to really rinse myself off. Arendellian water was as cold as Berkian, so, of course, I came out of the bathroom shivering.
That is, until a pair of arms hugged me from behind as I was reaching for my clothes.
"Awww, my hero, you've showered!"
It was Anna, burying her face on my hair. I brushed her hands with mine and chuckled slightly. I turned around to kiss her, and she was way ahead of me as she smacked her lips onto mine.
We made out for a few moments, occasionally brushing our tongues together as we progressed. Her lips were savory, making me want more and more, but I knew I had to end it at some point. Eventually, she pulled away, though I still managed to steal a kiss even after she did so. We rested our forehead against each other's.
"Hey there," I greeted, staring into her deep blue eyes. "Have you got some clothes for me?"
"Oh! I have some male clothing here," she dashed off to her wardrobe and pulled out a dark green shirt with some black trousers. She handed them to me and I walked off to get dressed.
While doing so, I noticed something off.
"Why do you have male clothing inside your own wardrobe?" I asked, finishing myself up.
I looked up to a blushing Queen of Arendelle. "No… reason?"
I smirked at the sight, but then I noticed a dash of sauce near her lips. "Anna, you have," I gestured to the area I meant. "Some over there."
"Oh," she dabbed her mouth her hand.
"Did you just have dinner?" I asked.
"I just prepared dinner," she took my hand and led me out of the room. "The whole Arendelle is having dinner together outside, come on!"
I could hardly imagine the whole Arendelle having a feast together, let alone the spot of where to do so. "What, like in the courtyard?"
She scoffed, running faster in the corridor. "No, silly! On the streets! I booked a table near the statues of my parents. The gang is also there, too!"
I tried to picture of how the sight would be, but I decided to just wait to see the real product later on. "On what occasion are we holding this dinner?"
She turned to me. "To celebrate our victory."
I scoffed this time. "Right…"
As we made a right turn through the corridor, we stumbled upon an Elsa that was chewing off a bar of chocolate in a very unqueenly manner.
"Caught in the action!" Anna shouted. "Come on, sis! I'm starving!"
She chuckled before joining us. "Even after giving that turkey a 'handful' taste?"
Anna turned to her briefly, blush coloring her cheeks. "Shh!"
Once we reached the courtyard, we stumbled upon a walking Cassandra and her son, Gideon. I nearly forgot of the fact that she was a mother. A fairly young one.
"Cass!" Anna called… by her nickname, I guess? "Gideon!"
The duo turned around to us and waved their hands. With Anna's lead, we ran past the two. "The table near the statue, okay?" Anna reminded.
"You got it!" Cassandra replied. With that, we ran out of the gate, and I was already out of breath, so I pulled my hand off of hers.
"Anna, chill, I need to catch my breath," I said as I crooked down my back while holding my knees.
"Yeah…" Elsa spoke. I turned to her to see her in the same posture. "Calm down, the food is not going anywhere."
"Yeah, but the dinner has started!" Anna complained back. "And aren't you starving—"
Crash!
A brief blow of wind blew past me. I looked up and saw the Night Fury himself right in front of us. "Toothless! Hi!" I greeted.
Right away, the dragon approached me and tried to lick me, which I prevented by shutting his jaw tight. I gave the dragon scratches and hugs instead to ease his longing for his bestie's affection. The dragon's arrival gave me an idea.
"How about we just ride on Toothless? But I'll tell him to just walk. Gotta let that wound heal as fast as it could by flying as rarely as possible," I excused.
"That's the best idea in the world," Elsa commented and hopped on Toothless right away. Anna crossed her arms in annoyance initially before hopping on as well. With me on the most front spot, I signaled Toothless to start walking.
Up ahead, I noticed the street lamps being lit on, giving a warm and cozy atmosphere. As we progressed, that's when I noticed a line of tables with benches on the main street of the village ranging to the dock with people feasting on the food provided in front of them.
Once we walked past a table, the people began to notice our presences. Out of nowhere, they stood one by one and clapped their hands. I was a little confused by the action, but a ton more claps followed. They stood from their benches and clapped their hands while spectating us with smiles. Occasionally, one would cheer my name. Occasionally, a kid would show up and give me a token of appreciation in the form of a necklace with a wooden Nordic rune, which I realized was Iduna, the kid Anna and I rescued previously, after Anna reminded me. Occasionally, people would come up to me to shake my hands. This amount of gratitude was something rare in my life, and each one would always feel special.
The clapping showed no sign of stopping until we finally arrived on our table near the statue of young King Agnarr and Queen Iduna. Then, the clapping finally calmed down. We hopped off the Night Fury and sat on our benches, which were enough for four people. On the table of our right, the Berkians were busy feasting and drinking, something that I could not really control despite of my position as a chief since it was 'quite' the sight. But they rightfully deserved this special dinner.
I sat next to Anna, in front of Elsa. "Right… so…" I scanned the food in front of us. "We have some beef… oh wow, Mrs. Hoffman's stew? Apple pie as the desert…" I named the menus.
"We still have the Berkian wine," Elsa offered with a smile.
I smiled at the offer. "Very nice."
"No wine on the table, please," Cassandra requested, who just showed up with her son who she had in her arms. "At least, until I put my son into sleep."
"I guess water will have to do for now," I raised my glass and brought it to the middle of the table.
"For the victory that we have achieved, cheers," I looked to the ladies with a smile, as they raised their own glasses and knocked them against one another.
"Cheers!"
Third person POV
"Indeed… cheers for that…"
Black ashes rose from the ground as the man peeked from a dark alley of the village, but they were not the volcanic ashes that had previously covered Arendelle thoroughly. They were an essential feature of the man himself as a living being.
"I will be back… stronger."
THE END
THERE IT IS. THE FINAL CHAPTER!
Thank you sooooo much for following this book. As you can read from the last passage, a sequel is very much happening! As for the time of its release, I can't tell you yet, but I'm not even sure of when it is coming out lol, but I will try my best to release it as soon as possible.
What do you think of the story? Please do let me know by leaving a review (: again, thank you very much for reading the story. It's been a pleasure.
Riley out.
Update: the sequel of this story is out! Check it out in my profile, "Malevolent Wonders"!
