Author's Note: As always, you guys are awesome!

Now, it seems that my gmail not receiving any notification from FanFictiondotNet at all. This means any PMs, reviews and others are blind to me unless I check it manually here, which...I rarely do because of busy schedule. So for those that PMed me and have yet to receive any reply, it is because of the reason stated before. But don't worry, I'll reply to it! It's just going to be a little bit late so please be patient with me.

CHAPTER 14 – Into the Frozen Heart

The Night Fury landed a few meters away from the staircase leading to the Ice Castle and his rider, the Viking King wasted no time in getting off.

"My lady," he curtly bowed at the dragon's remaining rider, the Snow Queen. Hiccup held out his hand with a grin and Elsa giggled.

"Oh my, a chivalrous Viking! That is a rare sight," Elsa said and took his hand. Not that Elsa needed any help in getting off from Toothless, in fact, she suspect Hiccup knew it as well but she decided to humor him.

"You only know of that fact now? After hours of knowing me?" Hiccup said in mock hurt and it was Elsa smirked.

"Considering how our first encounter went? Yes," Elsa said and Hiccup sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Now follow me,"

The Snow Queen then began to climb the staircase followed by The Viking King and Night Fury. Because the staircase was narrow, they had to walk in line. Elsa was at the front followed by Hiccup and Toothless.

"Now, I must warn you," Elsa said and Hiccup perked up at the word warning. "This castle is protected by a guardian. A large snowman to be precise,"

"Wuh?" Hiccup said, making Elsa turn around. When she did however, she met one of the funniest scene in her life.

Hiccup had one of the funniest look of disbelief on his face and what was more, Toothless' head peered from his side and mirrored his rider's look. Toothless grumbled and Elsa could guess what the question was.

'A snowman?'

Elsa pursed her lips to stop herself from laughing. It was a rare sight to see someone like Hiccup who was so accustomed to weird, crazy and not-normal stuff to be perplexed by something such as a magical snowman.

"You have a snowman…guarding your ice castle…" Hiccup asked and Elsa nodded.

"Yes?" Elsa asked, as if questioning Hiccup's question about her choice of a magical snowman as a guardian.

"Well…I…sort of question the effectiveness of a snowman as a guardian?" Hiccup asked her in a timid way much like a person who was afraid of another's wrath.

It was then that Elsa realized that Hiccup wasn't perplexed by the concept of a magical snowman, but rather the concept of using it as a guardian entity. In other words, he and the dragon was perplexed by her choice of use for the snowman.

Elsa was speechless for a moment and was a bit angry at the revelation. Granted, Marshmallow did fail in preventing Hans from getting to her but considering that was his first time in combat. Since then Marshmallow had receive a huge upgrade. Still…

Marshmallow was her creation! To say less of him is to say less of her!

Elsa glared at Hiccup and both Viking and dragon felt the temperature dropping. Toothless shrank back a little but Hiccup stood his ground. "Are you questioning my snowman's ability as a guardian?"

"…yes…?" Hiccup croaked. "Well, you can't blame me, I mean snowmen are…cute! A…a harmless fun with snow!"

"I see, well allow me to demonstrate then," Elsa said and began to climb the stairs again. Hiccup gulped, more afraid of Elsa than some snowman that he had never met. He turned at Toothless who had the same idea. Hiccup shrugged and followed Elsa.

Once they have reached the top of the stairs, Hiccup and Toothless was awed by the sight of the Ice Castle. "Woooaaah," Hiccup said and Toothless growled in the same fashion.

Elsa who was waiting nearby, smiled at the reaction. It almost made her forget what she wanted to do. Almost.

"Well, here we are. My Ice Castle or as the Royal Ice Master would called it, the Fortress of Solitude," Elsa explained.

"So uh…" Hiccup said and his eyes wandered around in search of the snowman.

Elsa smiled and walked towards a huge lump of snow. "Marshmallow,"

Normally, the huge snowman would wait when someone was near before suddenly showing himself which would scare the daylights out of them. However, hearing the voice of his creator or mother, the snowman appeared calmly.

"Mama!" Marshmallow said. It made Elsa's heart to jump with joy at being called that but sometimes it caused her pain as well. For it was a reminder that she might not and most likely would not have a human child from her own womb. That was because knowing that her child might have the same powers and burden as her…it was a cruel and selfish thing for her to do to the child.

So instead, Marshmallow and Olaf became the children that she could never have.

Marshmallow hugged her gently for a moment before releasing her. "How are you?" she asked and Marshmallow beamed.

"Fine," Marshmallow drawled. Marshmallow was a strange snowman compared to Olaf. You could say that they were polar opposites of each other. Olaf could not stand being alone while Marshmallow loved it. Well, considering that Marshmallow was created when she desired to be left alone...it was a sad thing, knowing that Elsa had condemned the snowman to be that way.

Elsa broke out of her musing when Marshmallow turned his attention towards her guests. He growled and Elsa calmed him down. "Calm down, they are with me and they're harmless,"

Hiccup who was watching the rather motherly interaction, wasn't very impressed by the snowman, despite its size. Then he and Toothless were called harmless and they were taken aback by it. Toothless snorted and Hiccup placed his hands on his hips. "Harmless? Us? Compared to your overgrown snowman here?"

At that, Marshmallow roared at them and his body suddenly grew ice plates all over him, especially on the legs, forming a protective armor of ice. What was more, ice spikes then grew from the armor, making close range approach risky.

"Woah!" Hiccup and Toothless was startled but the dragon recovered quickly and began to hiss. He was about to release a blast of plasma when Marshmallow used his left hand to swipe the snow on the ground at them. Distracted, Toothless didn't release his plasma blast but Marshmallow wasn't finished. He threw two large snowballs at them, covering them in huge pile of snow.

Both Night Fury and Viking King didn't have time to react when large hands wrapped around their body in a strong grip and soon, they were facing a very angry snowman. Toothless hissed in defiance but Marshmallow roared back and this time, his mouth was filled with sharp ice spikes which was a little bit too close for comfort.

Toothless immediately flattened his ears, his eyes grew wide and he whined in submission. Hiccup choose not to do anything that would aggravate the certainly-not-harmless snowman. "We're harmless! We're harmless! We are totally absolutely harmless! Heck, I'd rename Toothless Harmless if you want to!"

Toothless glared at his master as a silent objection and Elsa laughed at what had happened. "Marshmallow, that's enough. You've done well in proving your point,"

Marshmallow nodded and gently let the two down. Hiccup began to dust off the snow while Toothless just shook his body. When that was finished, Hiccup took a good look at Marshmallow, who was still eyeing them critically.

Hiccup shook his head with a smile. "A scary snowman, who would have thought of that! I stand corrected," Hiccup said at and Elsa nodded with a smile. "You're awesome big guy," Hiccup said and carefully patted Marshmallow's hands and Marshmallow's features softened a bit.

"Marshmallow, they are my guests and I'm going to give them a tour inside the castle. Do you want to come inside?" Elsa asked and Marshmallow shook his head.

"Marshmallow guard!" the snowman answered and Elsa smiled sadly.

"Alright," Elsa nodded. "Do come in," the Snow Queen turned and walked towards the castle doors.

"Keep up the good work, big guy!" Hiccup said and followed Elsa. Toothless eyed the snowman warily but Marshmallow nudged him forwards.

With a swing of her hand, the ice doors opened without making contact with the Snow Queen's hands and she stepped inside. The Viking King and Night Fury followed and they were very impressed. Not that Hiccup had seen any ice castle before in his life but he had a gist of how ice structures usually would look like.

He'd been ice caves before and they usually have stalactites or defects in the ceiling and walls caused by the melting ice or buildup frost. However, Hiccup didn't see any of those at all. In fact, the ice structure was unlike anything he had ever seen. Usually, the ice that he was used to was cloudy but Elsa's ice most of it was clear. If anything it resembled crystals more than anything else.

Of course, the walls can't be truly clear or it will be seen through from the outside but it still didn't stop the ice from having shapes and patterns inside it! What was more, those patterns were of different colour! As far as he knew, it was currently impossible to design ice structures like these.

"How is that possible?" Hiccup asked and examined the floor. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't cold. "And it's not cold?"

"Well, I'm not the only occupant of this castle. Sometimes other people would come and they don't share my resistance to cold," Elsa explained.

"The reason makes sense but…how?" Hiccup asked again and Elsa shrugged.

"I can't explain how…it just happen according to my will. I can create various types of ice," Elsa asked and Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her. Elsa smiled.

…

"What in the world? A kitchen?! A working kitchen inside an ice castle?!" Hiccup said in astonishment as he examined the kitchen.

"And kitchen utensils made from ice! It works just like their normal counterparts," Elsa said and took a frying pan. Hiccup gave her a skeptical look.

"Are you saying that I can cook with these?" Hiccup took the frying pan and knocked on it a few times. The sound was differently from a normal frying pan.

"Yes," Elsa smirked.

Hiccup laughed at that. "Magical snowman as a guardian I can believe. But a frying pan made from ice? That's stretching things too far!"

Elsa giggled. "You're free to test it if you want,"

Hiccup shook his head. "Are you this is ice and not something else? Like…maybe air?"

Elsa titled her head at this. "Air? As if frozen air?"

Hiccup shrugged. "But this is awesome! You know, you could make your own brand of cooking utensils. The brand name could be…Frozen!"

Elsa giggled. "Oh my, I'm afraid you have a Viking's bad naming sense,"

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her before putting a hand on his hips. "I do not,"

Then Hiccup remembered he named an island Itchy Armpit but Elsa doesn't need to know that.

"What is that?" Hiccup immediately tried to change the subject and he quickly maneuvered around Elsa to get to the icebox.

"That is the icebox," Elsa said as Hiccup opened the upright rectangular icebox. "It stores food for long periods of time by cooling them,"

"This is…AMAZING!" Hiccup said in awe. "This is ingenious!"

Elsa blushed a little at the praise. "It's nothing. The idea wasn't even original. I mean, if I didn't make the whole castle warmer, then it would be a huge ice box itself. What I did was just…reduce the cold space, that was all,"

"And yet, us Vikings that live in practically, a very huge open air icebox, didn't even thought of this," Hiccup countered. "Then again, we might have been sick of ice already. Still, this is handy! If you could replicate this…"

"I've tried but it only works well because of my powers. The best we could come up with is an icebox whose ice requires change frequently," Elsa explained.

"Eh, good enough I guess when ice is abundant around. Oh look! Fishes!" Hiccup said and Toothless snaked his head around Hiccup to get a look inside and saw a number of whole fishes.

Toothless drooled and Elsa came to see the fishes as well before she grimaced.

"Whole fishes?! And not a single filleted fish?! I can't believe that mountain man!" Elsa said and huffed. Hiccup and Toothless gave her a weird look before the Viking King grinned.

"Not used to holding whole fish?" Hiccup asked and Elsa glared at him.

"Do not, attempt anything…fishy with that information!" Elsa warned and Hiccup's chuckled at that.

…

The tour then moved on to various parts of the castle and Hiccup was thoroughly impressed all the way. From the different colored rooms, to the balcony that showed Arendelle and the observation tower that can give a 360 view of the whole Kingdom.

It took about an hour to finish the tour and they found themselves on the grand staircase again. It was then Hiccup had an idea.

"Say…have you ever…made a slide before?" Hiccup asked and Elsa smiled.

"I have. When you have Anna for a sister, not making a slide here would be a crime. But after I was finished with them I tend to remove them because it would clash with the interior design," Elsa explained and Hiccup just nodded in understanding with an expectant look. Elsa recognized that look. She sighed and shook her head.

The Snow Queen then waved her hand and the grand staircase rose higher and a long twisting slide materialized. Fortunately, the slide was wide enough to accommodate for Toothless' size.

"Yeah!" Hiccup wasted no time and immediately got down on the slide before yelling in excitement. Toothless eye's widened with excitement and followed soon after.

Elsa watched the duo with a fond smile.

"A man, yet at the same time a child," Elsa shook her head. She then heard laughter and realized that Hiccup and Toothless had reached the bottom and they were urging her to come down using the slide as well.

Elsa complied and went down the slide. She let out a controlled cheer until she reached the bottom only to find that the duo was nowhere to be found. Elsa then looked up and saw that Hiccup and Toothless was already climbing the stairs again.

Elsa waited until Hiccup was on the slide again before she raised the slide's lower portion so that Hiccup would flew into the air. To break his fall, Elsa had conjured for a huge pile of snow on where Hiccup would fall.

Hiccup was surprised by this sudden turn of events and yelped as he flew into the air for a few seconds before crashing into the snow pile. Elsa giggled as she saw a Hiccup shaped hole on the snow. A roar could be heard and Elsa saw a black shadow flew into the snow as well, leaving a Night Fury shaped hole.

A few seconds later, two heads popped out from the snow. Hiccup and Toothless both had a pile of snow on their heads and Toothless had a large grin on his face. Elsa couldn't help but to laugh at the scene.

Hiccup then took a handful of snow and throw it at Elsa. She gasped before being pelted by more snow and soon a snowball fight happened. Elsa conjured more snow around the place for Hiccup to use as cover and ammunition. Elsa didn't need ammo nor cover at all. She didn't bother moving around much as she can deflect incoming snowballs to varying degree of success and conjured more snowballs to throw.

Toothless couldn't throw a snowball of course nor do anything rough to Elsa as he would do with Hiccup. That doesn't mean he couldn't join the fun however. Toothless would often deflect thrown snowballs from Hiccup with his tails, claws, and wings and often act as a mobile cover and distraction.

10 minutes later, Hiccup was lying on the floor, laughing lightly while Elsa was seated on a small pile of snow. Toothless was lying belly up, his legs on the air and with his floor lolling out of his mouth. The sight reminded Elsa of dogs. It was a strange thing as she always thought that the dragon resembled a cat more than anything else.

Well, Sven the Reindeer acted like a dog sometimes.

"You sure know how to have a good time," Hiccup got up to a seating position and said.

Elsa smiled. "Well, when the fun is related to snow, it is true. I'm lacking when it comes to other things, however,"

"That is not true, I like being in your company, with or without snow," Hiccup said and Elsa fought the urge to blush at what he had said.

"I'm sure Anna is a much more enjoyable company than me," Elsa said.

Hiccup shrugged. "It depends on the person I guess. Anna is energetic sure, but I already have a lot of energetic company at home. Someone like you is a refreshing pace and a rare experience from where I come from,"

Elsa smiled a bit wider this time. "You flatterer,"

"I'm just saying the truth," Hiccup smiled before he turned his head around the foyer. "You know, it feels like there's something missing here,"

Elsa raised an eyebrow but before she can ask anything else, Hiccup got to his feet and went to the frozen ice fountain in between the grand staircase. "You should have an ice statue!" Hiccup said.

Elsa only gave him a blank look before looking away. The thought did crossed her mind to make ice statues for decorations and it was even suggested by Anna and Kristoff. But then she remembered how Anna was turned into one. If anything, making ice statues was a reminder of the worst thing that could happen with her powers. It wasn't the blizzard or dangerous ice, but how she could literally freeze people. She didn't mind using her powers, as long as it didn't hurt people.

Remembering how she used to freeze Anna still haunts her dream.

Unfortunately, Hiccup didn't realized Elsa's discomfort. "I know! You could start with Toothless!" Hiccup turned towards Elsa.

Elsa gave a weak smile before she waved her hand. A swirl of snow later and a snowman shaped Toothless appeared.

Hiccup looked disappointed. "That's awesome but it's not made from ice," Hiccup stated the obvious as he still fail to notice Elsa's discomfort.

Elsa wanted to say that she wouldn't do it but then Toothless gave her a pleading puppy eye look. She wasn't expecting that. It seems that Toothless wanted to see an ice statue of himself as well. As if that wasn't enough, Toothless let out a pathetic whine like growl and suddenly, Elsa couldn't find in herself to deny the dragon.

She could turn down her own sister but couldn't resist the pleading of a dragon. What does that say about her? Anna would be angry at that!

Elsa sighed and relented. "Alright," she said and got to her feet. She waved her hand and Hiccup and Toothless could see the ice forming slowly. Unlike when building a snowman, the process was slower but it didn't take too long to complete it.

Soon, a real scale ice statue of Toothless appeared. It was sitting on his hind legs, his wings closed and there is a toothless smile on its face. It was the image of when Toothless had accepted her. Elsa then added a few touches to the sculpture; she colored parts of the statue black and green, making it look like a crystal statue.

"Nice!" Hiccup said, examining the flawless work. Toothless happily bounded towards the statue and mimicked its pose. Elsa giggled at this. "Hey bud, maybe I should ride him instead eh?" Hiccup said and he tried to mount the statue.

Toothless growled and Hiccup immediately got off from it. "I don't know whether he is jealous of the statue or that he didn't want me to ruin it,"

"Well, I wouldn't like it if you ruin it either," Elsa said and Hiccup chuckled nervously.

It was the first time she had ever sculptured an ice statue and it felt…good at least. She expected to feel bad and wrecked with guilt but thankfully, it wasn't like that.

"Do me next!" Hiccup said and waited expectantly.

This time, Elsa hesitated. Making a statue that wasn't a person was still doable but of a person? That would be a guilt and nightmare triggering moment.

She wanted to refuse. She was ready to refuse. Her right hand was clasped on her chest and she took a step back but then her eyes landed on the statue of Toothless.

The statue's expression was happy unlike what she remembered of Anna's frozen form. Then she saw Toothless sitting beside it looking at her worriedly. He realized Elsa was looking at him and he smiled that Toothless smile again, naturally mimicking the same pose as the statue.

It reminded her that the ice statue wasn't a frozen person or creature but it was just that…a frozen sculpture.

"I've seen what you can do when you were yourself…when you're not afraid of yourself,"

Elsa remembered Hiccup words and the fear that was building inside her faded. She smiled and send a bolt of ice on the floor near Toothless' statue. The small patch of ice grew bigger and bigger, taking shapes until a human figure was formed.

The 'Hiccup' statue was…a different Hiccup. In fact, it was the Hiccup in her nightmare she had about him before their first encounter. The statue had a huge muscled body and was covered in leather armor. His left shoulder has a snow leopard's head and its fur was fashioned into a cape. And what was more, it was holding a long two handed sword one hand and it was flaming. The statue's expression was terrifying and it towered over the two humans.

Toothless gave a confused growl and Elsa herself was surprised at the turn of event. How the heck did she created this version of Hiccup?! She must have imagined it sometime during the creation but, but…

Hiccup examined the sculpture silently for a moment. Elsa wanted to explain but Hiccup slowly walked towards the base of the grand staircase, crouched and…sulked.

Hiccup then mumbled words that most of it was incoherent to her but she did catch some of it. "Everyone expected me differently…" Toothless then gave her a disappointed look before heading towards Hiccup and placed a paw on his back. He growled soothingly, as if saying calming words at him before he turned his head at her and giving the disappointed look again.

Elsa wasn't supposed to laugh but she couldn't help it! Sure it was her fault in the first place but then the way it turned out in the end was absurd! Hiccup sulked and Toothless comforting him much like how a human would!

Elsa laughed for a moment, earning the attention of the dragon and his rider. "I'm sorry-I'm sorry! It's just! There's a story for this, I swear!" Elsa said.

Hiccup was silent but he gave him a sad look that…made her felt like she had kicked a dog.

'A man, a child and a baby!' Elsa thought. She smiled and she waved a hand at the ice statue again. The statue morphed back to show Hiccup. It was smiling and a hand was placed on its hips. This version of Hiccup was wearing his leather flight armor than the royal attire he wore when he first set foot on Arendelle.

Hiccup saw the statue and happily went beside it. "Now that, is me!"

Elsa giggled. "I don't know, I sort of like the previous you better…" Hiccup's face fell. "…as a statue. I like the real you more as a person,"

Hiccup smiled before he chuckled and he turned towards the statue again. "Still, this is awesome work! I'm surprised that you didn't have more around,"

Elsa didn't answer but instead she examined the statue. The statues didn't make her feel bad but instead it gave her a sort of an epiphany. The statue of Anna that kept haunting her was mostly because of Anna's frozen expression. That look of fear frozen on her face, a reminder of her worst enemy, fear. However, Anna's fear wasn't because of her, but it was for her. Fear for Elsa's safety even though in the end it would mean sacrificing her own well being.

Even then that fear was a product of love. Anna's sacrifice was her act of true love for Elsa. Anna could have choosen not to help her and if Kristoff was too late to help, she would then become a testament of the worst side that came with Elsa's power. However, she didn't and instead, Anna's once frozen form became a testament of her love for Elsa.

The reason why that particular memory kept haunting her as a nightmare was because Elsa kept focusing on the negative parts of the memory.

Of course, most of the memory was indeed negative but in the end it turned out well. Anna thawed because of her love for her and she kept on living to teach Elsa the beautiful side of her powers.

She could let the memory continue haunting her by focusing on the bad that had happen or she could move on by focusing on the good that came from it.

Hiccup and Toothless observed Elsa silently, realizing that she was pondering about something. They didn't have to wait for long before Elsa smiled and she turned towards Toothless. "Thank you Toothless,"

Toothless gave her a puzzled look and Elsa patted her head. Elsa turned towards Hiccup next. "And thank you, Hiccup. You always managed to do crazy and impossible things to me,"

Hiccup also gave her a puzzled look. "Wha-? Literally or figuratively?"

Elsa giggled before she waved at the statue. The statue morphed into the shape of not-threatening Marshmallow and Sven on his side with Olaf on top of his head, holding the deer's antlers. All the statues was looking at something happily on the sky.

Toothless' face fall at seeing the disappearing statue but Hiccup was more interested in the turn of event. Elsa didn't say anything and went up the grand staircase. Once she has reached the top, she shot two ice bolts at the support structures on the ceiling.

The two ice then morphed slowly downwards like a stalactite. Once they have reached a certain height, it grew larger until a shape can be seen. The first ice became a large statue of a dragon, Fafnir with Sigurd riding it. The statue of Anna and Kristoff can be seen standing and holding on to the dragon's spine with happy expressions.

The second ice became another statue of a dragon, Toothless this time with Hiccup and Elsa can be riding him and their expression showed happiness as well. Elsa made the ice statues or ice chandelier statues as if they were flying around each other.

Each statue was colored according to their respective counterparts to help differentiate between each statues better than if it was of the same color. The result was that it resembled an crystal chandelier more than ice.

"Woaaaaah," Hiccup's mouth was opened in awe and Toothless mirrored his expression.

Elsa smiled at her work. She have to admit, the ice sculptures gave her ice castle a personality of sorts. Now it didn't look as empty as it was before. Anna would be delighted at this.

They were silent for a while to savour the artwork. Suddenly, a loud grumbling noise can be heard and it came from Hiccup and Toothless.

Elsa giggled. "Do you want to have dinner here, Hiccup?" Elsa offered. She knew it wasn't proper since they were quite alone if you minus Toothless and Marshmallow. They should go back to the castle right now but…Elsa didn't want the moment to end yet.

Such a bold and brave action she just did. It was so unlike her…well the 'her' before.

Hiccup looked hesitant. "Are you sure? I mean…"

"It's fine," Elsa assured.

Hiccup didn't answer and instead looked at Toothless. The Night Fury growled and The Viking King sighed before he shrugged. "Sure, but…" Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck, not looking to all the cooking work that he was about to do.

Elsa smiled. "That's wonderful! Now let us cook!"

Hiccup looked surprised at this. "You can cook?"

"Did you think that the fully stocked kitchen was for show? Besides, what kind of host would I be if I let you do all the work," Elsa said.

"I thought that there would be another snowman that does the cooking," Hiccup said and Elsa giggled. "Still, you do realize that cooking involves fire right?" Hiccup smirked.

Elsa raised an eyebrow at what Hiccup had implied. "Or is your cooking different than what I'm used to?"

"I'll have you know, Hiccup, that my ice does not thaw easily," Elsa smirked.

"Huh, the Snow Queen that cooks. That I have to see," Hiccup said.

"You'd be surprised," Elsa replied.

As Elsa descended down the stairs, Hiccup had to ask one more question. "By the way, what's with the deer and the small snowman?"

Elsa smiled. "It is a long story. We can share it over dinner,"

Hiccup smiled. "That sounds interesting,"

Author's Note: What should be a short tour became an overnight stay! What would happen later on at night? Dun dun dun... Should there be lemons? Or there shouldn't be any lemons at all? In fact, you can vote for it! I've set up a poll on my profile page but I'm not sure if it will work. Been a while since I've made one. If the poll is not working, I'll use the reviews instead.

Read and Review!