Come on down, stop on by

Anna woke up early, and the first thing she did was try the doors. Still locked.

"Dammit!" she hissed and stomped her foot.

Over in his niche Olaf was mumbling in his sleep, kicking his little snowy feet as if he was running. Seeing him, thinking he was cute, Anna sighed, and a pull of affection for her friend made her smile a little. As long as she had Olaf, it had to mean Elsa hadn't forgotten they were sisters. That they had sneaked through the palace during late evenings as children, built snowmen and tried to see who could slid the farthest on their belly through the hall. The first thing Elsa had done when she inherited the Force of Ice and Snow from their mother, was to build a snowman and give it life. That had been Olaf.

"Hi, I'm Olaf and I love warm hugs," Anna whispered to herself, remembering how silly Elsa sounded when she'd said those same words as a crown-princess who succeeded in her first spell. Anna remembered how much she'd loved Olaf back then. Now… now she only wanted Elsa.

Anna went to her dresser and picked out a pretty dress with pink flowers on a black bodice and a green skirt that enhanced Anna's eyes. She combed her hair and stared at herself in the mirror, then braided her hair in simple pigtails, not wanting to bother with looking like a princess today.

The doors clicked.

"Finally! Olaf, we're going to see Elsa!" Anna called and ran out. She had to talk to Elsa. Hiccup was poison and Anna had to make her sister see that. See that he wielded too much power in the city. But most of all, she had to make her sister look at her again, just drop everything and let her hair down. They had to be sisters again, just the two of them, but Hiccup was in the way. He'd poisoned their relationship until Anna hardly even recognized Elsa. When was the last time they played together? When was the last time she saw Elsa laugh?

The doors to Elsa's room came into view, and Anna smoothly slid under the crossed spears of the ice guards and slammed the doors open. The first room was Elsa's office, and her bedroom was beyond that. Anna was yelling even before she was through that door.

"Elsa! Sister, I have to talk to you! You have to listen to…"

Hiccup was sitting on Elsa's bed, his back naked and streaked with red lines, caused by Elsa's nails. Elsa's limbs were wrapped tightly around the man and her head was thrown back.

Anna heard her moan and gasp.

Hiccup turned around, eyes blown wide and expression dazed and cold.

Elsa, a second or two slower, realized there was someone else but her and Hiccup in her room. Anna saw her eyes widen, focus on her and then… Elsa snarled.

"Get out!"

Anna turned and fled. Fled through the office and out the door and down the corridor and down stairs and down and down. Only with the gate in view did she slow her pace. Then stopped.

For a long moment, Anna just stood there, mind blank, and tried to understand what had just happened.

Hiccup had been in Elsa's bed.

Anna remembered the class, the only one she'd been forced to sit through, and then found herself interested in. The class about men and women and how they become parents. Her teacher had urged Anna to try to pleasure herself with her fingers and said a man's organ felt much better. Anna had tried it, but found it just hurt and was uncomfortable, so she had dismissed that claim. But on multiple occasions she had accused Hiccup of sleeping with her sister.

She hadn't thought they really did.

Elsa's face before she realized Anna was there looked like she enjoyed it.

Because a man's organ felt better than fingers?

Anna shuddered, deeply unsettled. She felt sick. Bile was rising in her throat. She hadn't realized Elsa was really that far gone.

Enough.

Enough of this!

Anna would find a way to lift the veil on Elsa's eyes if it was the last thing she'd do!

The palace gates opened as she approached, enraging Anna even more, knowing it was Elsa who let her out. Her sister wasn't even trying to hold her back, chase after her to explain why, why, why she choose Hiccup over Anna.

"I AM THE SILVER DRAGON FREYA!"

Anna jumped around, startled.

Behind her stood a boy with brown hair and eyes, hands in the air, and stared at her with a grin that looked unnatural.

"What?" Anna voiced doubtfully. Why would someone from the village suddenly approach her? They usually stayed at a respectable distance, waiting for her to come and play with them.

A dragon crawled up the boy's arm and sat on his hand. The first thing Anna thought was that it was Hiccup's lackey, and that had to mean this boy was too.

"I-I… This is the silver dragon Freya of Legend! Here to spread warmth to each home and food to every table!"

Anna kept staring, forcing herself to ignore the dragon showing off its fiery powers. She hated fire. Fire was wrong. This country should only have ice, because it belonged to the Ice Queen Elsa and to Anna. But the words didn't match the image of dragons that was in Anna's head. What kind of dragon was capable of spreading warmth and bring food?

The boy opened his mouth again, as if to continue his tale, but then his gaze suddenly locked on her, and his expression returned to that stiff, unnatural smile from before. He lowered his arms.

"Ah, that's probably not a popular story in your house…"

Anna immediately perked up. "What? Why? What story? Why would you start telling it if you know it's not good?!"

The boy blinked several times. "…you haven't heard the story of Freya?"

Anna wasn't dumb. The way the boy phrased it meant that everyone else in the city knew about it, and since it was about a dragon that apparently did good, she was about to open her mouth and say that no such dragon existed and that Hiccup had probably spread it, when the dragon on the boy's arm suddenly spoke.

A dragon that spoke?! What it said didn't register and Anna had never seen this one before, but if it could speak like a human it was dangerous. Too dangerous. She couldn't allow a talking dragon to exist!

"Hey you nasty snake! Get off him immediately!"

In Anna's world, everyone hated dragons, except for Hiccup because he was evil. Hiccup was fooling Elsa to let the dragons roam free and the villagers were too afraid to say anything. But Anna was the princess. She knew the truth, and she would protect this boy from…

The boy grabbed her hands and pushed her back.

"Are you crazy?! Never touch the dragons!"

Stunned, Anna stared at the boy. All around them people were yelling and scattering, sending wide-eyed looks towards them, like they were frightened. Why?

The boy in front of her looked around, then swiftly grabbed Anna's hand and pulled her along, away from the palace. Anna looked back, wondering if the ice guards would follow, wondering if her sister would think Anna was being kidnapped. Surely Elsa was watching. Surely she saw what just happened, heard everything.

But the ice guards stood perfectly still with dark eyes. Elsa wasn't watching at all.

The castle disappeared from sight between houses and its blue light was replaced by that from above. Elsa's voice didn't echo over the city, calling her name. Elsa was…

"What's going on!" she yelled at nobody and pulled her hand free from the boy's. The boy. He was looking at her again and the talking abnormality was still on his shoulder. "Why are you allowing that little beast to ride you?"

"It's…" he started, his eyes flying to the roofs around them briefly. "It's the first rule the vizier put down; don't provoke the dragons."

The vizier. The first rule. Anna saw red. "How dare that man make rules in my sister's kingdom!? This was the last drop! I'll go back to…"

The image of what she'd walked in on this morning flashed before her eyes, and Anna went silent.

"Master is with the queen right now," said the dragon. Anna shuddered at the voice. It sounded so inhuman. So unnatural. What if there were more? Hiccup could talk like a dragon, and he was a magician, so of course he'd taught a number of dragons to talk like a human. But it wasn't right. It gave Hiccup a voice in the city. When was the last time Elsa talked to the people? Anna couldn't remember, and it unnerved her. How could Elsa have allowed Hiccup to have so much power here?

Or maybe she hadn't allowed it. Maybe she wasn't even aware of it.

Anna rounded on the boy. "Why are you obeying Hiccup's rules?! You should go to the queen and put an end to it. Hiccup has no right to rule the city!"

His eyes grew even larger and he kept blinking. Anna glared at him impatiently.

"I… what?"

"I'm telling you!" Anna screamed and threw her arms up. "You shouldn't obey the vizier! Only the queen! You're starving and afraid because of Hiccup and if you only told my sister everything about it she would finally see that I'm right and banish that slithery snake! After all, it was my ancestors that built this city. That guy has no right to try to overrule Elsa!"

His expression didn't change, but Anna was pleased to see him nod along in agreement. Until he spoke.

"Nobody can enter the palace without permission."

As if that was a problem! "I give you permission!"

"From the queen," said the dragon. "You're only a powerless princess."

That didn't even matter! Elsa and Anna were sisters, the same flesh and blood, and their word should hold equal weight in the palace! It was Hiccup's fault that it wasn't so!

"My name is Jackson!"

Anna's attention was pulled back to the boy when he waved his hand in her face. "What?"

He was smiling that unnaturally wide smile again. "My name. It's Jackson. Most people just call me Jack. Greetings. I know who you are, but I don't know your name."

Again, Anna got distracted. "Why are you waving your hand like that?"

Silence stretched between them, growing increasingly awkward.

"…It's… what? You don't know? You've lived all your life in Arendelle and don't know how to greet someone?"

Greet? Anna almost balked. She very distinctively remembered her tutor listing off the number of classes each morning, and she remembered there had been a class about greetings. She remembered it because that class had sounded so mind-blowingly pointless. She had certainly not expected such a thing to exist among other people than royals.

"I may have… skipped that class," she admitted quietly to the boy. He'd said his name but Anna hadn't caught it. It wasn't the kind of name that stuck.

But the boy's face scrunched up in confusion. "Class? No, wait, I mean, don't you socialize? Like, what do you do when you enter a room full of people? It's extremely rude not to greet the ones who meet your eyes. Like, no greet-no meet kind of rude."

Rude. Elsa had said that a hundred times. It was rude to not greet the tutors and visitors. But did people in the city greet each other as well? Commoners socialized? Where? How? On top of that, this boy put it in a way Anna had never heard. No greet-no meet?

"What does that mean?"

The boy's face changed, his eyes becoming piercing as he studied her. Anna was suddenly aware that despite being a princess and this boy a commoner, he was better educated. Better schooled.

And he was cute. His eyes were wide and brown, set in a narrow face with a straight nose and sharp chin.

"It means… that nobody will talk to you or share their table with you if you don't greet them first."

Anna stood still, letting the words sink in. Each time she'd walked into the city, people kept a distance. Could it be… that was because she didn't greet them? If she did, would they talk to her? Did Hiccup know about this? No, he most definitely did. Anna had seen him talk to people on numerous occasions. So this was the secret? Greetings? Never in her wildest dreams would Anna have suspected that the ticket to get rid of Hiccup was a class that she'd been so vehement about avoiding. Anna was almost starting to regret her life choices. Almost.

"Want to try? We can go play with a few kids by the wall. The viz… visually pleasant light from the orbs is… I mean, they make it a perfect playground."

Anna had almost forgotten about the boy, but what he offered was something she wanted to jump at. Being taught by this boy didn't sound nearly as boring as listening to the tutor's droning voice that Anna could fall asleep to if she heard him in the hallway.

Besides that; a playground! When had Elsa built it and why didn't Anna know about it?!

"I'd love that."

For some reason, the boy looked surprised, as if he hadn't expected Anna to agree. But he quickly plastered on that strange smile. Anna was starting to wonder if that look was actually normal for him. "O-okay. Great. This way," he said and turned.

The dragon was still wrapped around his shoulders, and Anna still hated it. She liked it even less when it buried its head into the boy's collar.

"What was your name again, I didn't catch it," Anna asked.

"Jackson. I'm an apprentice of dig-build guild."

Anna smiled and fell into step beside the boy. "Jackson."

He glanced at her, his gaze searching as he slowing his step.

"What?"

"You've… really never done this before." He said it as a statement, and Anna caught a flash of incredulity in his eyes.

"Done what?"

"Introduced yourself."

…he was right. Anna had never had to introduce herself. Everyone knew Elsa and thus knew her. "You know who I am," she responded slowly.

"Doesn't mean I know you. Or your name. Or is that a secret? That's why you keep dodging the question?"

"What? No! Of course not. My name is Princess Anna Hydra Arendelle. How come you don't know?"

The boy, Jackson, shrugged and shook his head. He had a rag tied over his head to protect his ears from the cold. His clothes were all shades of brown and grey. Small, sharp bones worked as fasteners here and there. But he wore many layers, making him look unnaturally thick in relation to his head. Only the dragon was a band of colour around him.

Blue didn't suit him.

"Everyone should know who I am," Anna went on, somewhat huffy.

"We do," the boy said. "But I don't think you get it. You see, you should know from looking at me what guild I belong to and what I do. That's not the same as knowing who I am. Just because I think you should know me, or you think I should know you, how can we know anything about each other? We've never crossed paths before."

"That's different," Anna argued. "I'm the princess."

"Who cares," came a muffled, disinterested rely from inside the boy's collar.

He stiffened, eyes going wide, stretching his neck and glancing down. Anna frowned and reached forward to pull the dragon away. But Jackson's hands grabbed her again, stopping her.

"I told you to stop obeying the vizier's stupid rules!" Anna cried and tore her hands away.

"Idiot!" the boy hissed, making Anna jerk back. Nobody had ever talked to her like that.

The dragon lifted its head and looked around. When its yellow eyes, framed with long eyelashes, landed on Anna, it glared at her, but said nothing. It only curled tighter around the boy's neck. Challenging her.

Anna's eyes narrowed. She wouldn't be pulled in. She refused to play by Hiccup's rules. Besides, she was about to learn how to finally have people talk to her and she would make sure everybody knew what Hiccup's game was and then they would rise to protect their queen.

"So how does it work? Greetings. Just a wave of the hand?"

Those wide brown eyes landed on her. For a long moment, he didn't answer, so Anna waved her hands the same way she thought he'd done it.

Hurt flashed in his eyes."…what… oh," he looked away and stepped back. "You just told me I'm annoying and to go away."

"What?! No! I did it the same way you did."

"You did this," Jackson waved his hand, and Anna stepped back too, eyes wide with recognition.

"Oh. Sister does that. It's how she dismisses people."

Which meant this boy wasn't lying. If both the queen and the citizens had the same hand gestures, it meant Anna really shouldn't have played hooky so much when she was younger.

"Yeah. So to greet, you make an arch with your right hand to your heart."

Anna watched carefully, and then copied it.

"Not quite, but better than shoo, at least. Oh, there's the playground. Hey Jamie!"

This morning, Mulch took them to the hunters guild to receive their rations. He wore his hood low and tied rags around his face. Cuppake knew why, but couldn't really understand it. Still, she had held her parents hands after they died, and didn't want Mulch's hands to go cold too. So she stayed quiet. They all did.

Jamie lead the group, something about being a man that Cuppake didn't understand either. At least he made sure to lead them to Finn, an elderly hunter who seldom bragged about his kills. He was also just a little soft-hearted. Not enough to get extra rations, but just enough to not refuse to give children their rations. Some days Cuppake wondered if Finn knew about Mulch and Phil and the others. He had never spoken a word about it though.

"Rats! Those who doesn't work don't deserve rations!" another hunter called. This one was young. Too young to join the head huntress' on her expeditions. Cuppake knew him only as the nephew of the guild's master.

"Bring those complaints to the vizier, Arch!" Finn called back and handed one bag of dried meat to each pair of hands in front of him. He didn't even bat an eye at Mulch's bandaged hand.

Arch started sputtering, but Cuppake couldn't hear what he said as Mulch quickly pulled them all towards the ice-breakers. They handed out clean water. You'd think a world of ice wasn't lacking in water, and it wasn't. It's just that the snow of the desert contained parasites that ate you from within until everything that would come out of you was blood. Those parasites was what the fairies ate. Then the fairies were eaten by dragons who the vizier used to guard the city and make fire. At least Cuppake thought the vizier used the dragons like that. She wasn't quite sure though.

Lastly, Mulch brought them towards the Fisherman guild. But there stood Hans. He was a calm and cool man, and Cuppake was much more terrified of him than of the vizier.

Jamie's steps faltered as he too, noticed who was in charge of the rations today. It shouldn't have been Hans. But Jamie glanced over his shoulder, then straightened and stepped into line. Mulch fidgeted, held Cuppake and Sophie closer to him, and stepped in behind the young builder.

When their turn came, Hans didn't move, just looked at them.

"We're here to collect our rations for today," Jamie spoke bravely and held out his hands.

"Oh really? Only those who are working have a right to rations," Hans spoke coolly with a smile that might look polite if you weren't receiving it yourself.

Jamie threw a look towards their guild house where three large dragons were chewing rocks and breathing fire. No one in the guild had wanted their children anywhere near the monsters, so Jamie couldn't really claim they were working.

Mulch reached forward, patted Jamie on the shoulder and then pointed at himself.

"Mulch is working!" Cuppake exclaimed.

"Who is Mulch? I don't think I've ever seen anyone by that name with the builders," Hans countered, his smile widening.

"He's one of our diggers, so of course you haven't seen a lot of him. But he's working so you must give him his rations."

Hans sighed and kept smiling down at them, as cold as the queen. "You must think I'm stupid. This lump of cloth could be anyone. Someone who has already received their rations and is now trying to get more than their share. Unless he shows his face, I have no obligation to give you anything."

It was times like this when Cuppake wanted the vizier to appear, to pop out of thin air with his dragons to uphold his rules. Sophie whimpered on the other side of Mulch, and their big friend gently pulled them all away without making a sound, or looking up.

"I thought so," Hans said behind them.

Cuppake looked around again, but still no vizier.

Mulch took them back to the back of the guild, out of sight from the dragons, where they sat down and ate half of the meat that had been rationed to them. Usually Mulch would trade his meat for their shares of algae. Since they had gotten none, he instead simply distributed his meat to them. Now he'd have to work all day without any food at all, only drinking water.

"Go to playground," Mulch said softly, his words strange and gruff, his speech more an imitation of sounds than actual words. "Other children already there. Play, and no sad. Mulch will tell story tonight!"

Normally, they would all jump to hear Mulch's stories. With the stress of the past day and night, it was a small comfort.

"Promise?" Sophie asked, voice hopeful.

"Promise."

"Okay then," Jamie nodded and stood, putting away the rest of his ration and reaching for Sophie's. "That's all the food we'll have today, so don't eat it all now."

Cuppake put away her food too, under as many layers of clothing as she could. Because right now she was homeless. Again. Right now she could only stick to her friends from the guild and hope there would still be room for her once the guild-house had been fixed.

The playground was located against the wall. The diggers had dug out a hollow cave and the vizier had installed several light orbs, and even two heat orbs into the walls. The light was yellow here, instead of blue. It smelled of warm earth and sometimes of fire.

As the children approached, now a large group of every child from dig-build, a few dragons lifted their heads. They squawked lazily at each other and took off.

A compromise, the vizier had once told them. Since there was warmth there, the wild dragons of course wanted to hang out here as well. But if human children wanted to play here, the dragons had to move. That way it became a shared space, almost sacred ground, held up by the vizier's promise to remove the attraction; the heat orbs, the moment anyone tried to claim the space for themselves.

The vizier always kept his promises.

"Let's build our own guild-house," Jamie suggested, at the very least trying to lighten the mood. Cuppake sort-of admired him for it, but he wasn't nearly as good as Jackson.

"I want to build a house for the diggers," she said and boldly walked towards a heap of bricks. The had been made by their guild members, as well as a few other toys that was kept here.

"Let's build Hans and break him."

Everyone stared at a small girl with a head full of wild, untameable blond hair and blazing eyes. She wasn't from dig-build, but rather the daughter of Big-Boobied Berta, the head huntress herself!

Then the words sank in and Cuppake exchanged glances with the others.

"Let's do that," Jamie nodded.

"And guild-houses," Cuppake stated and set the first brick down. "To lock him out in the cold!"

"Yeah!"

Camicazi, the young huntress, stepped up towards Cuppake and moved her hand almost solemnly in greeting.

"I'll build a house with you and then you help me build a Hans."

Cuppake nodded and returned the greeting. "You must lay one brick on top of two, or the wall won't hold," she instructed, showing what she meant.

Camicazi's eyes shone with some surprise and curiosity. She'd never played with dig-build's children before, but as she started picking up bricks and stacking them, it was clear she'd tried her hand at it.

"My mum told me they must build huts with bricks of snow when they go on hunting expeditions," she said. "How could that be done? How would they be stacked?"

"I've never heard of snow houses," Cuppake said. "But snow is soft, like dirt, so a dome?"

They talked as they worked, their four walls growing to their hips, leaving an opening for a door. All around the playground five different stations were growing, decorated with chalk drawings.

"Hey Jamie!"

"Jack!" the boy called out even before he saw the older boy.

Cuppake looked up, wanting to ask what Jack had done about the princess…

"Hi! What are you doing?"

Every child stood stock still and stared at the one beside Jack. Then their saucer-sized eyes all turned to Jack. His hand waved at them, almost discreetly, his face more of an awkward grimace than a smile.

"Kids, this is Anna. She's the queen's younger sister and she would like to play with you."

Their eyes grew even larger, shifted over to the princess and then back to Jackson.

"Why would she ask us for food?!" someone demands, and Cuppake really wants to know that too.

But to their surprise, the princess, the one who destroyed houses and heat orbs and wood and made people homeless and dead, looked confused. Innocent even.

"Apparently they don't teach greetings at the castle," Jackson said awkwardly. "So I just showed her how to and it hasn't really…" he trailed off with a wave of his hand that said "don't ask".

"I tried to say hello," the princess said and fidgeted nervously. "I want to play with you. I never knew my sister made a playground like this. I would have come here a lot if I knew. Where's the slide?"

Once again everyone turned to stare at Jackson, who rubbed his face and waved another "don't ask" at them.