Author's Note: This story has reached 400 reviews! Oh my god, you guys are awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
The first five minutes of HTTYD2 has been released and it looks great! Damn, June can't come any faster! Oh well, it's like a month and a few days away. But still!
finnicksgirl72: Nice to know you like the chess analogy! Although I like to think it as a reference. In fact, I've used many references in the story. See if you can find them all!
muggleborn . dragon . ryder: Sorry about your name, it has to be typed this way or FF won't show it properly. About Hiccup and by extension, other characters, yeah, I've got many feedback about them not being them at all. At this point, I've accepted that the characters in my story is going to be a bit different than their canon counterparts. I just hope that it won't be too different that the only similarities they share is their name. Still, I'm glad that you like it!
YouNameIt: They will visit the ice castle next chapter. As about being the threats of being attacked, well that is far far away. The thing is, most of the plot elements I mention will most likely be used in the far future. I'm setting the plot elements early so that it doesn't seem to just suddenly sprung to existence and hopefully, there won't be too many plot holes when I did use them. And hopefully, I can remember all the stuff that I've set in myself!
In short, most of the chapters you are going to read are the calm before the storm. The storm is taking its time to brew somewhere.
Mandalore Requiem: What I wrote was...close enough to your word, I guess, hahaha.
CHAPTER 12 – Catch Me When I Fall
"Wow, your King can shop after all," Anna commented, impressed at seeing the long line of merchants waiting to deliver their goods and receive their promised payments.
"Yeah! Even we were surprised. Didn't think that he would do anything with the stuff that we brought," Tuffnut commented.
"And lucky for us that you didn't overdid yourselves, huh?" Sigurd commented. "If not, there wouldn't be any space for your cargo,"
The twins looked sheepish at that. There were a few moments that Sigurd had to step in or the twins would had taken advantage of Anna's generosity. That and he had to decline the Princess herself from almost giving them half of the market's items.
"Oh sheesh," Anna waved a hand at Sigurd. "If there's no space we can rent a boat for you,"
"Huh, well…not sure what Hiccup's going to think about that. Speaking of Hiccup, isn't it almost time for the flying session?" Ruffnut said and Anna's eyes suddenly turned wide at that.
"Oh my gosh, yes!" Anna squealed. "I have to get ready! I'll see you guys later!" Anna said and she immediately ran towards the castle, leaving a bewildered Kristoff and the group of impressed Vikings behind.
"H-hey! Anna! Wait for me!" Kristoff chased after her.
Meanwhile, the group of Vikings need to get prepared as well.
…
"Sigurd, you and Fafnir will handle the Princess," Hiccup said as he adjusted his flight armor. "And perhaps his boyfriend as well. I figured that he would want to tag along as well,"
Sigurd nodded while the twins were busy distracting Toothless with the various trinkets they got from the market.
"Ruff and Tuff, you guys won't be flying but instead you two will wait on the ground for our return," Hiccup said and patted his armor. Satisfied with its condition, he began to check his supply satchel next.
"What? But that's boring! What the heck are we going to do when you guys were having all the fun? Who's going to entertain us?" Tuffnut voiced his opinion.
Hiccup smirked. "You will behave and stay put. Consider it probation,"
The twins groaned. "Can't you just punish us when we're back home?"
"No," Hiccup deadpanned.
Hiccup then seemed satisfied with his supply satchel and whistled. Toothless immediately went after his friend and Hiccup fastened the supply satchel on the Night Fury's saddle. Hiccup then pulled the supply satchel a few times to make sure that it won't fall off.
"There you go," Hiccup said, satisfied with his work. Toothless then bounded around excitedly. "Toothless!"
"Soo…that means you'll ride with the Queen then?" Ruffnut asked.
"Obviously," Hiccup rolled his eyes at what he thought was the most obvious question ever asked but he was distracted by Toothless again as the dragon nudged him towards the ship's bay doors.
In any other situation, it might be. However, considering Hiccup's past, it was a good question to ask.
The Vikings eyed each other and decided not to question their King any further.
"He seems to have forgotten about Astrid," Tuffnut whispered.
"For now. Let's hope that it will stay that way," Ruffnut replied.
It was actually surprising for them to see Hiccup to be so comfortable with a woman after what happened to Astrid. Before this, Hiccup would avoid spending time with any woman that showed even the slightest of interest in him, even if it wasn't romantic. Well, women of his age anyway.
Now, not only Hiccup was talking to Elsa like nothing bad ever happened to him, he was even going to fly with her!
Either Elsa has other magical powers or Hiccup suddenly has a convenient case of short term memory loss. Maybe Hiccup was moving on with his life after all?
'I think that Hiccup only sees Elsa as a friend or perhaps…a sister?' Ruffnut thought.
That was not good. Looks like a little intervention was required.
"Alright, so you guys ready?" Hiccup looked back and asked his friends.
"Ready," Sigurd simply replied.
"Wait Hiccup!" Ruffnut went after Hiccup and pulled out a parcel from her satchel. "Here, a gift for the Queen,"
Hiccup eyed the parcel suspiciously and Ruffnut grinned. "It's harmless this time, I swear,"
"And innocent?" Hiccup asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruffnut asked and Hiccup only gave her a knowing look.
"Do I need to remind you that time when-"
"Alright, fine! Yes, it's innocent this time. Open it if you don't believe me," Ruffnut replied.
Hiccup shrugged and opened the parcel to reveal an emerald shawl. The Viking King raised an eyebrow as he spread the shawl in the air with both of his hands to examine it further. The emerald shawl was medium sized designed to cover the head and shoulders.
Hiccup had seen bigger shawls that could cover the entire body but Hiccup liked the medium size better. Unless of course Elsa preferred the larger ones, considering the cape that she wore…
However, the shawl on its edges also has gold designs of numerous dragons of different species chasing each other.
"It's beautiful," Hiccup commented. "It must be expensive,"
Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "Duh! It's for the Queen! Of course it has to be expensive,"
Hiccup smirked. "I'm sure she'll like it. Thanks, Ruff," Hiccup said.
"Duh!" Ruffnut replied. She took the shawl and folded it back into the paper wrapping before handing it back to him.
…
Frederik Havar, Arendelle's General almost went ballistic when he knew that the Royal Sisters were going on a flight with people they barely knew.
"Your Majesty, you can't be serious! Both of you, at the same time!? What if something happens to the both of you? Arendelle would be in deep trouble!" Frederik reasoned.
"I understand General, but I have faith that nothing bad would happen, hopefully," Elsa answered.
Frederik gave Elsa a disbelieving look. "You're leaving it to chance now? Are you insane?"
"I know it does sound crazy and unreasonable but I want to do this,"
"Why? Why risk everything just for a few minutes ride? And with people that you barely know too! For all we know, they could be another Hans," Frederik said and Elsa eyed her surroundings.
Luckily, Anna hasn't arrived at the garden yet. "I thought that you'd be more sensible than this! Now you're acting like Anna was when she first met with Hans!" Frederik continued.
Elsa sighed and she looked down on her gloved hands. The gloves she wore were work gloves, thicker than the usual gloves she used to wear. It was more for Hiccup's protection than hers should she lost control of her emotions and her powers when flying.
"I know. But so far he hasn't proposed yet," Elsa joked with a smile.
Of course, this only serve to infuriate the General more. "Elsa, I'm not playing around!"
"I understand, uncle," Elsa replied. "But Anna seems to trust them,"
Frederik rolled his eyes at her. "Just like how she trusted Hans?"
At this Elsa glared at the General. "Give her some credit. Yes, she made a mistake two years ago but she has learnt from it and it made her wiser,"
"Wiser than you? Wiser than -"
The surrounding temperature began to suddenly drop as Elsa speak. "Yes, Anna is indeed wiser than I and others in certain areas of expertise,"
Frederik to his credit, didn't back away. "And I take it that what you're going to do is included in Anna's area of expertise?" Frederik looked at her questioningly. "What kind of expertise are we talking about anyway?"
'Love?' was what Elsa almost said but she sighed. "In illogical things,"
Frederik groaned and rubbed his temple. "Elsa-"
"I know what we are going to do is illogical but I realized that not everything has to be that way to live a life. In fact I am the very definition of illogical," Elsa said and Frederik knew what she meant.
"That may be so but-"
"Sometimes, the illogical course of action is the best," Elsa interrupted him. "During the Great Freeze, what would the best course of action be, logically?"
Frederik looked away as he couldn't look Elsa in the eye.
"The best course of action for Arendelle at that time is to have me removed by any means necessary. And the best course of action certainly isn't to let the crown princess, the one who is next in line for the throne to go after her runaway sister alone,"
"I didn't have time to stop her," Frederik tried.
"And you didn't stop or come along with Hans when he went after me. If anything were to happen to him, what do you think would happen to Arendelle?" Elsa continued.
Frederik couldn't answer her.
"Or perhaps, that is the outcome you were hoping for? When Anna and Hans is out of the picture, the ruling power would go to the council until-"
"That is not true! I didn't go at that time because I need to keep the ambassadors in check! Besides, Anna and Hans just took off without informing me!" Frederik defended and finally looked her in the eye.
"I know and I understand," Elsa sighed. She was right, Frederik would choose Arendelle first before her. Still, she couldn't fault the man. She would do the same as well.
"But this is what I meant, uncle. Anna's illogical course of action turned out to be the best in the end…well for Anna, Kristoff and I anyways. I'm sure that a lot of people would prefer a different outcome, yes?" Elsa said with a smile. "After all, most people think it's illogical to have the Snow Queen on the throne. The council thought so at first and perhaps still think so today,"
"You know I defended you on that matter," Frederik said and crossed his arms.
"And that is perhaps your most illogical course of action you've taken," Elsa said. "Even though I know that the logical side of you share the same thought as the council. Having me on the throne would only attract excessive attention from the world and you fear that the attention might not be beneficial for Arendelle,"
Frederik looked surprised at this and turned his gaze away again.
"That-that is-" Frederik tried.
"That is the truth and I understand," Elsa said and sighed again. "Still, in all honesty, I am not comfortable with the idea of riding the dragons myself either,"
Elsa would like to add that the Vikings might purposely let them fall from the sky but she didn't want to drag it out any longer than necessary.
"For both of our sakes and Anna's, I will ask them to limit their flying range and actions," Elsa said and Frederik turned to look at her again but he was silent for a moment before he sighed.
"Alright, alright…I just hope that I won't regret this," Frederik said and shook his head.
"You and I both," Elsa smiled.
"Heey! I hope I'm not too late!" Anna screamed as she ran towards her sister followed by Kristoff.
Elsa shook her head. "No, you're not late,"
Anna then went full on chatterbox mode, rambling about how it would feel to fly. Elsa could only chuckle and watch her sister with amusement while Kristoff sighed and shook his head.
…
It wasn't until dusk and the sky began to darken when Anna noticed two winged creatures in the sky. Everyone turned their attention to the sky as well and they could see the shape of two dragons, different from the first dragon that they saw.
The dragons closed in on them rather stealthily for their size and landed quite gracefully as well in front of them.
The first red coloured dragon is the larger of the two and it was huge. Huge enough that it carries Sigurd and the twins without difficulty. The dragon also has four wings and has two horn large horns that pointed sideways on its head. Strangely enough, the dragon's face looked like it was smashed in like an owl's. Or maybe it resembled a certain breed of expensive cat that she remembered seeing...
The riders got off from the dragon and it stood straight, easily towering over them. The dragon then turned its gaze towards Elsa and the Snow Queen instinctively gulped.
"Your Majesty, may I present to you, Fafnir, the Storm Cutter dragon," Sigurd said and gestured towards the dragon.
'Well, it's nice to know that not all Vikings are horrible when it comes to naming,' Elsa thought.
"Fafnir, Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Ice Master Kristoff and General Frederik," Sigurd introduced the dragon to them.
"Hello," Elsa said and the dragon…nodded before resuming his posture again.
Anna was speechless however as she gawked at the dragon. Unbeknownst to Elsa however was that the Viking Twins were looking at her with shock.
"Uh-oh," Tuffnut said and Ruffnut nodded. Elsa didn't hear them however.
Elsa then turned her attention towards the second dragon which she guess was the Night Fury, Toothless. It really lived to its name as its colour was the same as the night. The dragon was just like it was described in the book but seeing it in the flesh gave Elsa a different feeling. The dragon noticed Elsa and they both stared at each other.
Its huge emerald cat-like eyes held curiosity and intelligence in them and Elsa knew that it was no simple beast. The dragon was wary of her, as if sensing and knowing something about her.
'Perhaps it knows?' Elsa thought.
However, her thought was cut short when the dragon turned its attention towards its master and Elsa followed suit. Her eyes fell on Hiccup and she was surprised to see that he was staring at her in a mute shock with his mouth agape.
Elsa gave him an inquiring look. 'Strange, why is he looking at me like that? Is there something on me?' Elsa thought.
Fortunately, someone knew what was going on and decided to take matters into her hands.
…
When Hiccup got off from Toothless and turned his attention towards the Snow Queen, he was shocked!
Elsa was wearing white riding pants, dark green shirt and black vest which Hiccup guessed was the usual attire when riding horses for the royals. However, what surprised Hiccup was that Elsa worn her hair in a loose braid that resembled…
'Astrid!' Hiccup thought and he could swear that he was looking at her right now.
Before this, Elsa was dressed differently that Hiccup hardly see the similarities and he could deny it. But now…
Astrid and Elsa both had blonde hair even if it was of different shade. Both had blue eyes and they braid their hair in almost the same style! Elsa wearing pants didn't make things any easier as it reminded him of his old flame.
Now that Hiccup thought about it, Elsa and Astrid was so similar that they can be mistaken as sisters. Heck, if you were to put Astrid beside Elsa and Anna, you would think that Astrid was the one related to Elsa and not Anna!
Suddenly, Hiccup's chest tightened and his heart began to beat faster. Then the feeling of guilt began to appear and his strength and courage left him. Unknowingly he began to take a step backwards and his hand was reaching towards Toothless, ready to mount him and fly away.
Fortunately, someone decided to take action first.
Ruffnut rolled her eyes and groaned before heading towards Hiccup and pulled him away from the group, despite the Viking King's protests, earning everyone's attention. Strangely enough, Toothless seemed to understand that some privacy was needed and followed after the pair. Once they have reached a safe distance where they could not be heard, Toothless expanded his wings and shielded them from the rest of the group.
"Alright Hiccup, you've got to stop doing that!" Ruffnut said and Hiccup gave her a weird look.
"Do what?"
"Don't play dumb! You're giving her that look! The kind of look that you have on your face when you saw someone that even remotely resembles Astrid!" Ruffnut said.
Hiccup looked away guiltily.
Ruffnut sighed before continuing. "Look, Hiccup, I've hold off from talking to you about this because I thought that you needed time. But now I know that it is the time to talk about this,"
"I don't want-"
"Though luck. What happened to your "I was a stubborn idiot who wouldn't listen to his friends,"" Ruffnut air-quoted and Hiccup glared at her. Ruffnut didn't back down however and crossed her arms.
"This is about something else!" Hiccup said.
"I didn't know that listening to your friends only applies on the subject of running a kingdom!" Ruffnut said.
Hiccup didn't answer but instead continued to glare at her.
Ruffnut sighed again. "Look Hiccup, I'm not doing this just for you, but for Elsa as well because what you are doing is not fair to her,"
Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her. "How is it unfair to her?"
"Because she is not Astrid's ghost, shadow, replacement or whatever!" Ruffnut said and Hiccup was about to retort when Ruffnut raised a hand to stop him. "Nobody wants to be seen as someone else that they're not! She is her own person! She is Elsa the Snow Queen, not Astrid the Shield Maiden!"
"You think I don't know that? It still doesn't make it any easier not to see Astrid on her!" Hiccup said.
Ruffnut pursed her lips for a moment. "Hiccup…she's not trying to replace Astrid. No one is,"
Hiccup was silent.
"You see Astrid on her and it makes you scared because you think that she will replace Astrid,"
Hiccup tightened his jaw for a moment before he could speak again. "I don't want a replacement, even if she's not Astrid," Hiccup looked away.
"I know Hiccup. You think that if you love again, that new love will replace Astrid and you'd forget her. But it doesn't have to be that way! Maybe…maybe you could still love Astrid in your heart and yet at the same time, love another that's not her," Ruffnut said and Hiccup turned to look at her again.
"How is that going to work?" Hiccup asked and Ruffnut shrugged.
"I don't know but I do know that there's no one like Astrid. I know that you can't and won't love another woman that's like her…but maybe that's the thing? Maybe you should stop looking for a replacement and instead look for…someone new and different?" Ruffnut tried.
Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her. "And you think that 'someone' wouldn't mind that I am still hung up on someone from the past?"
"Who knows, maybe she wouldn't mind," Ruffnut shrugged again. "Look, the bottom line is, Elsa is not Astrid, she's not trying to be her and she is not trying to replace her. So stop seeing her as such and treat her like Elsa and not Astrid, got it?"
Hiccup didn't answer but Ruffnut wasn't going to let him get away so easily. "Got it?" Ruffnut said again.
"I'll try," Hiccup said weakly.
"How about this, if see that look on your face again, I'll punch you as reminder and hopefully, it will knock the impression off," Ruffnut offered. "In fact, I think I'll punch you so hard you'll forget about Astrid long enough for you to get married to someone,"
Hiccup smiled at that. "I don't think I'll appreciate that,"
"And I don't give a damn," Ruffnut said and Hiccup chuckled.
"Thanks Ruff," Hiccup said and Ruffnut smiled.
"That's what friends are for," Ruffnut said and turned away from him. "Come on, they're waiting for the ride,"
Toothless pulled away a wing to let Ruffnut go before looking at Hiccup. Hiccup turned to look at his dragon and put his hand on the dragon's snout before scratching it.
"She's right isn't she, bud? I've been an idiot again," Hiccup sighed. "I may not be ready to love again but Elsa isn't Astrid, no matter how much they resembled each other. It's not just Elsa too but other woman that looks like her as well. But can you blame me, bud? A lot of Viking women looks like Astrid!"
Toothless snorted at him, sending a gust of wind at his face before mumbling something. "Yeah you're right, we'll worry about that later. We've got some flying to do,"
Toothless nodded and pulled in his wings, exposing Hiccup to others again.
…
"Sorry! It was just a prep talk," Hiccup grinned and Elsa wondered what it was about but choose to ignore it.
If anything, Hiccup was back to normal again and that's enough for now.
"So! This is Toothless, the legendary Night Fury you've heard so much about," Hiccup said and gestured towards Toothless. "Toothless, Queen Elsa," Hiccup sneaked a look at her. "Princess Anna, Ice Master Kristoff and General Frederik,"
Toothless examined each of the person mentioned before turning his attention at Elsa again. "Now bud, they're nice people, so be nice, okay?"
Toothless rolled his eyes at him while mumbling. Elsa smiled and for some reason, couldn't help but imagine Toothless' silent answer.
'What, you think that I couldn't be nice?' Elsa thought what Toothless would be saying.
"I know you could, bud," Hiccup said and rubbed his forehead. Elsa smiled knowing that she might have gotten it right. "Anyway, Queen Elsa would be riding with us," Hiccup gestured towards Elsa and Toothless narrowed his eyes at her.
"Hey! You said that you could be nice!" Hiccup said and Toothless huffed at him. Hiccup sighed and Toothless stalked towards her. Elsa's eyes widened at this and she suddenly grew afraid.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" Elsa asked and Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck.
"He's wary of you," Hiccup answered and this suddenly made everyone except the Vikings tense as well. For such a dangerous beast to be wary of someone, it couldn't be good. "Look, don't be scared, don't make sudden moves and do as I say, okay?"
Elsa nodded.
"Now, look away from him and extend your hand towards him," Hiccup said but Toothless for some reason, wasn't making things any easier. He was baring his teeth at Elsa and was even hissing!
Still, Hiccup wasn't worried. He had a feeling he knew why Toothless was doing this.
Elsa jumped a bit and the temperature began to drop. "Elsa, don't be scared," Hiccup said and Elsa turned to look at the Viking's eyes. Blue eyes on green and Elsa suddenly realized that it was the same colour as Toothless. In that sense, Elsa thought that they both are the same.
So if she can trust Hiccup, surely she could do the same with Toothless?
Elsa then turned her head away from the dragon and extended her right hand. Toothless' reply was to hiss louder and Elsa snapped her head at the dragon.
Frederik and Kristoff looked ready to spring at the dragon.
"Elsa, take off your glove," Hiccup said and Elsa hesitated for a moment as she stared at the dragon. Slowly, she then took off her glove and she could already see frost on her hand. She willed the frost to disappear but her fear didn't allow it. She was reluctant to touch the dragon in such state but it looks like she didn't have much time as Toothless hissed again. Nevertheless, she repeated the process again and hoped that the dragon didn't take it the wrong way.
Elsa waited for what it seemed like an eternity before she felt a course surface touching her hand. Elsa's eyes widened in surprise but before she could turn her head, she heard a snort and a breeze of warm air enveloped her hand.
Elsa squealed before she felt the frost on her hand melting away and the dragon's skin was on her hand again. Elsa slowly turned her head around to find that her hand was resting on the dragon's snout with Toothless closing his eyes with a content look on his face.
Elsa's smiled and her fear dissipated as she began to rub the dragon's snout for a few second before Toothless break the contact. Suddenly, Toothless sat on his hind legs and gave her a toothless smile. Toothless then mumbled something and Hiccup chuckled.
"Can you guess what he said?" Hiccup asked. "I'll give you a hint, it has to do with his snort just now,"
Elsa smiled. "My hand was cold?"
Hiccup smiled. "Yep," Toothless could sense her power but he wanted to confirm it. At the same time, Toothless wanted assurance that Elsa would not be a danger to him during flight.
Anna then decided to take that time to socialize with the dragons, so to speak. "Oh my gosh! Toothless, you're way cuter than in the flesh!" Anna squealed, earning the dragon's attention. "Can I touch you? Pleaseee?"
Toothless gave her a weird look but Anna was prepared. "Oh, oh! I've brought you something!" the princess said and pulled out dried fishes from a small pouch on her hips. "Well, it's not fresh but I hope you'll like it!"
Hiccup watched the interaction with interest. Dragons doesn't like processed food very much, mostly because it wasn't that satisfying to them. That and most processed food such as pickles and the like contains ingredients that the dragons don't like. Heck, they don't like most cooked food as well and prefer to eat their food raw. He wondered what Toothless would do in this situation.
Toothless sniffed the food and with a huff, opened his mouth. Anna placed the food in his mouth and Toothless munched with a look of disinterest on his face. After he was finished, he mumbled something again and shrugged his shoulders, as if saying that the food was passable.
'The dragon is very expressive,' Elsa noted.
"Sorry…" Anna said meekly. "I'll get you the fresh ones next time, I promise!" Anna said and Toothless perked up at this. He then approached Anna and allowed her to touch him. Anna didn't need any more pointers to touch the Night Fury.
Fafnir huffed loudly and Sigurd chuckled as he rubbed his dragon. "There's nothing you can do, Fafnir, he's a chick magnet,"
"Alright, so let's get going or we'll miss the sunset!" Hiccup said and Toothless perked up at this. He licked Anna once and laughed before stalking towards Hiccup. "That was for the fish," Hiccup said.
"This is-! Okay, I deserved that one," Anna said and tried her best to wipe away the saliva.
Elsa however, decided to try and get some word in before their flight. "King Hiccup?"
Hiccup turned his attention at her. "Yes?"
"About the flight, I know that you might let us fall-" Elsa started but was interrupted by Frederik.
"What?!"
Elsa raised a hand at him. "It is a risk that I'm afraid I cannot allow, I must ask for a favour not to-"
"No," Hiccup simply said and the Arendelleian group were flabbergasted.
"No?" Elsa asked.
"If you can't or don't want to take that risk then don't fly. It's simple as that," Hiccup shrugged.
Elsa was stumped at that. She didn't expect for the Viking King to flat out refuse her like this just for a simple request. Anna started to deflate at this.
Hiccup noticed this and wasted no time to explain himself.
"It's like this; can you promise me that you will not fall when you are riding a horse? Or when you're on a ship?" Hiccup asked and Elsa's eyes widened in realization. "You can't, right? Because no matter what you do or how hard you try, you can't eliminate that risk completely. Maybe the reason you will fall is not your fault, but it is the horse, or perhaps the weather or something else,"
Elsa's gaze softened at this as she remembered a bad memory that involved a ship and bad weather.
"But that doesn't stop you from using them, right?" Hiccup continued and sighed. "Look, we might gave you the impression that we like to drop people from the sky but that was half the truth,"
"Every Viking knows the risk of falling when flying. Expecting not fall when riding a dragon is…foolish. Heck, expecting not to fall when flying is foolish as well," Hiccup said and Elsa hardened her gaze at what he had implied but she remained silent.
"So instead of fearing that risk, we embrace it. We teach our dragon riders not to panic when falling and we teach their dragons to catch them. It then evolved to become a trust-bonding activity," Hiccup scratched Toothless' head.
"And in a way, it is about trust," Hiccup looked at Elsa straight in the eyes. "I mean, chances are, we've let someone down even though we did our best not to,"
Elsa's eyes widened in surprise again and she glanced at Anna for a moment before looking back at the Viking King.
"What we can do however, is to bring them up again," Hiccup continued. "I can't promise you that I will not let you fall. Honestly, I can't even promise you that I will catch you every time. But, what I can promise you is that I will try my best to catch you,"
Hiccup then began to mount Toothless. "So let me ask you a question; do you trust me to let you fall and catch you?" Hiccup asked and looked at her with a smile.
Elsa didn't know what to do. She didn't expect for things to turn out this way. Heck, she didn't expect such as the insightful response for a seemingly simple request. Nor did she expect for the Viking King to be so…philosophical.
However, she couldn't help but agree with Hiccup. Elsa turned to look at Anna and she saw the love and hope she had for her in her eyes.
Hiccup was right. She tried her best and tried almost everything not to hurt her sister ever again but it failed. Perhaps in the future, she would hurt her sister again but does that mean she should hide again and not take any risk at all to reconcile with Anna?
No. She promised not to do that again. She promised to heal the pain that she had caused and as of now, any pain that she would cause in the future as well.
She would take risk of flying and falling. In a sense, it wasn't just about trust, but about life. Life was about struggle and you would fall down one day no matter what you do. So what you can next do is to either stay down or rise up again.
Elsa turned to look at Hiccup with a smile. "Yes, I choose to trust you,"
Hiccup smiled. He then held out his hand and Elsa accepted it.
Elsa didn't know it, but the risk she had taken today would change her life forever.
Author's Note: Ha! You think they would actually fly this chapter, huh?
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