Chapter Six

The council was less than pleased with Elsa's findings. Even less so with Elsa's refusal to kill the dragon. Slay the dragon! That seemed to be the way the council wanted to deal with this newcomer. And, perhaps under different circumstances, Elsa would've considered it. But she had made an ice dragon for her little sister.

So for a little while, she leaned towards being a little… nicer than death for it. After all, what would become of the ice dragon if she killed the enemy one?

Elsa shivered, more from being in this giant throne room than anything. Silly custom, anytime they council banded together it had to be in the throne room, heavens forbid it be someplace comfortable.

Elsa shifted in her seat, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and smoothening her dress. A silly nervous habit, but one hard to break, even here before the council.

"Don't be absurd. We can't kill it!" The shout surprised Elsa out of her thoughts, and she gazed at Councilwoman Mira. Could it be they had been swayed otherwise, too?

"What?" Another councilwoman named Verire yelled.

"Not here," Mira retorted. "Imagine the taint it would put on our castle's grounds. On the gardens!"

Without any thought for the dragon. Elsa rolled her eyes, then blinked. Heavens, she sided with the creature too easily.

"Perhaps we could take it to the ocean. Drown it in the waters?"

"And taint the sea?" Verire sputtered. "What would our merchants think, a dead beast in their waters and a strange one at that? Never!"

The screaming became too much. Else cleared her throat. The other two councilmembers looked her direction and inclined their heads. Mira and Verire did not. So Elsa lifted her voice, "Perhaps we could discuss this in a calmer matter."

Mira and Verire stopped their bickering at once and bowed to Elsa. "I'm sorry, your Highness, but this is a matter far beyond our scope, beyond our wildest dreams that–"

Frowning, Elsa interrupted. "And yet you decide to destroy it right out of the gate?"

"It attacked Arendelle, Queen. It attacked your sister. It attacked you. And the barbarian atop the beast was no better," Mira said, folding her arms in a very undignified manner. She seemed more childlike every second.

"It is the start of war, my Queen." Verire pounded her chest, something very unfit for a councilwoman but quite in the realms of her warrior past.

"I do not condone the attack or the harm it has done to my people." Elsa used the word 'harm' lightly, none of her people had been injured, but the fear would be more than enough. "However, we should not rush headlong into a war with an unknown band of people, especially ones with such great dragons at their control."

This statement made both feisty councilwoman pause. As Elsa wanted it to.

Councilman Itemas spoke, his deep gravely voice showing his age more than his speckled black and white beard. "Have you found anything about the prisoner during your first interrogation?"

At the word interrogation, Elsa blushed. Some interrogation. But years of training kept her face neutral. "Her name is Astrid Hofferson. She hails from a place called Berk."

The council nodded, as if controlled by some single force. Eerie, how well the council did such actions, but then again, they always seemed eerie to Elsa.

Elsa hoped they would not ask more questions. Shame burned through her when councilwoman Mira opened her mouth to speak. "How far away is this… Berk?"

Breathing deeply, Elsa smiled. A question she could answer! She cleared her throat. "Berk is some time away, though I cannot know for sure how far away from Arendelle, as the prisoner used a dragon's flight as a means of distance."

This brought out a new fresh wave of indignation from Councilwoman Mira. "A dragon's… flight?" She sputtered. "What kind of horrid measurement is that?"

"One that the prisoner uses, so one that I will use as well. As a show of…" Elsa caught herself. She almost said, of good faith. So, not only did she defend the blue dragon but she sided with this barbarian woman, too.

"And how are we supposed to know how far this… this Berk is from our homelands if we cannot judge the distance?" Mira's face had turned the shade of red wine. A spittle of drool crept past her lips, but she wiped it away.

"We could always ask her," Councilman Itemas suggested.

"I intend to," Elsa confirmed, even though the thought hadn't crossed her mind before. "I will interrogate the prisoner further tomorrow. Tonight, let her stew in the prison, cold and alone. By first light, she'll want to talk."

The confidence in Elsa's voice surprised her. But the council nodded and, finally, the meeting was over.

Rummaging around her cloak, Astrid poked her fingers into the ripped inside hem. Her index finger touched something sharp. She smiled. The spare bit of dagger. The brief pat down from the guards earlier on hadn't procured this little item. Of course it wouldn't. Glancing around, she eased it from the hem.

It glinted. She looked out the window. The fading sunlight told her it was nearly nightfall. A slight chill settled in the cell, not unlike the chill from before, when Elsa had been interrogating her. Would they give her a proper blanket? Granted it wasn't a death toll, but it would certainly give her a bit of the freeze-lung.

Raising slightly off the bed, she looked outside. Stormfly seemed content in her little cage. Her tail drifted back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. To an untrained eye, it would seem an almost lazy action. But Astrid knew it was Stormfly's way of testing her cage, and of judging the distance her spikes could fly in such tight quarters.

Stormfly would be fine, for now.

But Astrid wasn't. Astrid wanted to be free. And she wanted to free Stormfly.

She fingered the sharp metal in her hands and glared at the door. Heading over to it, she noticed the guards flanked on either side. But they were relaxed, easily chatting about the dragon encounter. About the attack. About the barbarian woman.

Well, she'd show them just how barbarian she could be.

She crouched down and slowly, gently, started to pick the lock. In a mere minute it clicked. The guards stopped talking. From the shadows on the cell floor she could tell where each guard stood outside.

Astrid kept low to the ground, calculating each breath, calming her tense muscles. She had to time this right. One guard shifted over to the other.

Now!

She dropped the metal shard, grabbed the door, and heaved it open. Then, with her reflexed honed from dragon training, she attacked.

Punching the first guard – a skinny woman - in the throat, she ducked under the second guard's flailing grasp. The first guard went down, clutching her throat and gurgling.

Astrid turned on the second guard, eyeing him up. Bigger, stronger, this guard would take a few more hits before going down. The guard threw a punch, but she sidestepped the clumsy attack. Turning on her heel and putting her entire weight into it, she punched him on the chin.

It was like hitting a rock. Pain spiked down her arm. Even her shoulder ached.

His head rocked back, then forward. A grin pulled at his lips. He opened his mouth. She couldn't let him signal the others. Fear pummeled Astrid's hand towards him for another punch. This one connected with the side of his jaw. His weight shifted.

Built like a rock. Falls like a rock.

She spun on her heel and kicked him behind the knee, knocking his legs out from under him. Luckily his head bashed against the wall. Lucky it knocked him out. Lucky she didn't need to throw another punch. Her hand couldn't take another one.

But what about the first guard?

Footsteps pounded the floor, heading away from her. Even in the dim light of this prison she knew where that first guard headed. Down the corridor, up the stairs, out to the main castle. She knelt down and wormed a steel wristband from the fallen guard. Tensing her arm, she hurled the armor down the corridor. The resounding clank and thud that followed told her she'd hit her mark.

Astrid headed down the opposite way. She couldn't go out the way she came in. Too many people – servants, guards, villagers. Too many eyes.

Anna held Elsa's hand tight within her own. Her sister's eyes were cast down, trained on Elsa's knees. She was murmuring something, but Elsa couldn't hear. "Speak up, Anna, you know I hate it when you mumble."

Anna looked up. Her eyes shimmered. "You could've died out there, Elsa."

Shocked, Elsa ran a hand through Anna's hair. "You were okay before. Why all this worrying now?"

"It just hit me, that's all." Anna laced their fingers together. Elsa's bed creaked when Anna shifted forward. "I mean, it was a dragon. Something we didn't even know existed. A dragon!"

"But we're safe now. The dragon seems docile and the prisoner is secure." Elsa smoothed Anna's yellow nightgown.

"True," Anna whispered. "It's just crazy, right? Yesterday I didn't even know dragons were real and today I've seen two!"

"You own one, technically. And speaking of," Elsa nodded to the bundle at the foot of her bed. "That little one seems to want your attention."

The ice dragon had been sleeping under a pile of blankets, the day's adventure seemed to have tired it out. At the mention of the other dragon, though, this little one poked its head out of the bundle and yawned. Yawned so big, the roof of its mouth sparkled in the light.

Anna laughed and reached out to it. The ice dragon flopped into her arms, then curled like a contented cat upon her lap. It even purred. Well, hummed more like it. Anna ran her fingers down it's back. The humming grew louder.

"How did you create it?" Anna traced the swirling designs on the dragon's wing.

Elsa watched her little sister. "I wanted to give you a special birthday gift. So I created a dragon sculpture. But then it came to life."

Anna arched an eyebrow. "By itself?"

"I'm not sure," Elsa admitted. "I was a bit preoccupied at that moment." Preoccupied. Yes, that's how she should put it. Head in her arms, crying about her little sister's upcoming engagement. Preoccupied indeed.

"Amazing," Anna whispered. The ring on her finger sparkled just as much as the ice dragon.

"You know what's amazing?" Elsa asked.

"Hmmm?" Anna replied, keeping her gaze on the dragon.

"That you're engaged!" This time Elsa reached out and touched the back of Anna's hand.

Anna stilled, then she beamed. "It's wonderful, isn't it?"

Taking in all the sheer insanity of today, Anna getting engaged was one of the simplest. "Yes, it is wonderful," Elsa replied.

Anna squeezed Elsa's hand and turned back to the dragon. "Did you have a name for this little one?"

"No," Elsa said. "I thought you ought to name him."

Astrid had twisted down many corridors, when a crack in the wall finally caught her attention. It spanned floor to ceiling, wide enough for a thin person to fit through. She ran her fingers over the rough edges, nature did this, she'd recognize the damage anywhere. After all, how many winters had she survived through in Berk? Winter did this. But how did ice get so far inside the castle?

The ice woman. Elsa? Could she have done such damage? Astrid shook her head. Elsa was powerful, but to do this much destruction… maybe Berk was in more trouble than Astrid realized.

For a fleeting second, Astrid considered going back to her cell. Considered waiting out the night. Considered talking to them again, surely they'd interrogate her further.

But then she remembered Stormfly. If Elsa… if that ice woman could torture a harmless miniature dragon, then there's no telling what she could do to Stormfly.

Astrid gritted her teeth and ran her hands down the crack one more time. Her armor would get in the way. She shimmied out of it, making sure to tuck it into an empty cell. Feeling a little bit more vulnerable, Astrid wiggled through the crack. Stonework cut into her shoulders and dug into her knees, but she made it through.

She found herself standing in the middle of a fireplace looking out onto a bedroom. One so huge, her whole house would fit inside. Big enough to be completely furnished.

A four-poster bed stood on one end of the room, bookended by end-tables cut from rough hewn wood. Bookcases towered over her and took up almost the whole opposite wall. A desk twice her length and elegant lamps took up the third. And nestled beside the damaged wall, squishy armchairs sat around the ruined fireplace. Astrid winced. Who in all the gods would need such a huge room?

She stepped timidly into the room and darted over to the door by the bookcases. She didn't feel like being inside here any longer than she'd have to. Someone could come back, after all.

She pushed the door open. It creaked. Astrid stopped. Held her breath. No sounds burst from the other side, so she shoved the door some more and slipped through. She entered a hallway, dark and deserted. A knot rapidly building in Astrid's chest loosened. She went left.

If the hallway remained dark, she could just follow it to the end and get outside. Surely the hallway had a window. One she could jimmy open. She'd get outside, get past the guards, and free Stormfly. They'd fly away together and never return.

But when she reached the end of the darkened hallway, her fingers met only solid wall. No window. What kind of hallway doesn't have a window? Her stomach clenched. An internal hallway. She was inside the castle? That couldn't be right. The prison was to the right of the grounds. To the right of the castle, too. How could she be so far inside it now? Fear bubbled in her throat, like she had swallowed acid and it wanted to come back up. Astrid had lost her way inside an enemy castle.

Gods.

She shifted her attention away from the windowless wall and back down the hallway. There. A few paces down one door stood slightly ajar. She could go in there, collect her wits, and creep her way back to her cell. There had to be a better way out down there. She'd fight her way out, if she had to.

Astrid pressed her back against the wall and dared a peek inside the room. It seemed dark enough. Some light filtered through an adjoining room, but not enough to worry her. The last edges of the sun, or an early moon maybe.

Opening the door a little bit wider, she slid through the gap. Astrid had taken three steps into the room when movement jarred her senses. There, standing in the light, was Elsa.

SQ: Thanks for all the new favorites and followers! I'm honored. Commenters, thanks to you, too. I always love your feedback.

I wanted this chapter to be out much sooner, but moving is tough, guys! AK to PDX is way more all-consuming than I thought. Anyway, I hope to follow a more consistent timeline with the next chapters. Burn me or freeze me if I don't.

My question this time: What do you want the little ice dragon's name to be? I'm kinda stumped on it.

Leave me some names on the way out! Until next time!