Another chapter that I hope you don't find boring. I promise I'm building up to something here, but with the route I've taken with this story and the setting, it means there's a lot of groundwork to get done before the story can really get going. The curse of writing fantasy... So bear with me, please? Next chapter will start developing Jack and Anna's relationship and Hiccup will get closer to solving the Cave of Wonder's riddle. Look forward to that!

CONTENT WARNING. If you have a phobia against tiny venomous reptiles or a fear of dying by ants or termites, you might want to skip from where Hiccup says "I thought of something interesting", and pick up at the line at the part that starts with "Camicazi had never been afraid"

It's dark, take a shot

To the right of the palace gates were the stable. It held three rooms, one for Thornado, the old vizier's riding dragon, who guarded the cell housing the queen's mount, and the third for Windwalker. Now and then there were other dragons, friends she'd made via Hiccup, who checked in for a chat. The tree inhabitants of the stable were taken care of by a woman named Astrid, whose main duty was to keep the fairy mount happy and fed.

Today Windwalker was alone, Thornado sleeping peacefully against the door to the fairy's cell, but outside was a commotion she rarely heard.

Hiccup swept inside, and Windwalker whined at his expression, pressing up against him as he got near.

"Thank you, but I need you to stay here. The Cage is coming up and I don't want you caught in it."

The limping dragon deflated and rested her head on Hiccup's outstretched hand, allowing him to scratch her chin. He used to be good at it, but his fingers had gone stiff and cool in recent years. An effect, no doubt, of the queen's continuous love.

"Who will be in the Cage?" Windwalker asked.

"The Fisherman guild master. Thought he could play me and get away with it. I thought I could trust Tothn'ail to report to me if this happened, but you can't trust a fairy. I should have known. I was naïve."

The dragon pushed against her master, her tail waving erratically and small gasps escaped her.

Hiccup's expression softened. "Yes, you're right. Getting upset helps no one." He looked at her thoughtfully. "Right now I wish Fishlegs could speak Dragonese. Now I have to wait until I see him to discuss a new plan. In the meantime, I need your help. Ask the nano dragons to send a few friends."

"Who?" Windwalker whispered.

"The deadly ones."

In the official throne room, where guests were greeted and parties held, Elsa sat with a stiff back and fingers tapping against the armrest. Beside her sat Anna, chained to her smaller seat by the silence and freeze spells Hiccup had placed on the princess.

Below the dais that held the throne, Tothn'ail hung in an ice contraption, elbows tied to her knees behind her, her feet and hands crushed, the ice wrapped tightly around her beaten form.

"Have I made myself clear, fairy?" Elsa's voice was slow and quiet, but sharp and cold enough to prickle skin.

Tears streaked down Tooth's face and onto the ice around her throat. She struggled to speak. "Yes… yes, my queen."

"Good. You will stay in this trap until evening. Once I release you I want a full report of what's happening in the city, and any issues that fall under Vizier Haddock's jurisdiction?"

Tooth struggled. "I… I report… to vizier Haddock."

Elsa's eyes narrowed. "Good. Just remember; this is your last warning."

The fairy whimpered and gasped and her tears and snot flowed freely. With a disgusted twist to her mouth, Elsa waved a hand and two ice guards came forward. They lifted the contraption and hung it on a hook under the candelabra off to the left of the queen where she could see her prisoner. The next people that would come to face judgement would have a clear view of the fairy, a being of higher standing than humans, and know their queen was not so weak that she couldn't punish wrongdoers. After all, Hiccup had no authority to judge a fairy.

At Elsa's side, Anna was shaking, even though the spell held her firmly in place. This was her very first time in court, and Elsa figured that whatever Anna had imagined didn't match reality. Again.

The ice guard by the door stepped forward. "Vizier Hiccup has entered the castle with the offenders."

"Bring them in."

Hans had never entered the ice palace, and since they had managed to fool the vizier under the last check-up, he'd thought he'd been safe and never would have to see the inside of it. He hadn't actively tried to imagine what it looked like, but even those half-formed fleeting thoughts of curiosity as a youth held no semblance to reality.

The throne room was all ice, filled with pillars, intricate sculptures both frosted and see-through, and ice guards. The room was so high Hans couldn't see the ceiling, making him feel even more exposed and small.

But it was the chill that took his breath away. The room was so cold it stung his eyes and prickled his skin even under all his layers of blubber-treated fish skin and fur.

"Your queen has already convicted one trouble-maker today. You'd be wise to not agonize her further," the vizier breathed behind them.

Hans looked up.

There sat the ice queen on her throne, impossibly beautiful and wrapped tightly in revealing dark purple and white cloth with the glittering details made of fish scales. Hans just barely noticed there was a second seat and a second person on the dais, but absent-mindedly recognized her as the princess.

They reached the last pair of pillars, and Hans was not the only one who zeroed in on the body of a fairy hanging from the ceiling. It was still alive, wings futtering from time to time and blood dripping from broken hands and feet.

An invisible force, firm and prodding, had the fishermen kneeling fifty steps from the throne.

The queen's voice was as cold as the room.

"A young woman named Valhallarama once proposed to my ancestor that the citizens of Arendelle follow a set of rules to ensure prosperity and goodwill amongst the people. Those rules have since been tried and proved, reviewed and changed with the ages. You are under scrutiny, accused of having broken several of those rules. Vizier, what is the offence?"

Hans heard through the hacking of his own teeth the sound of someone raising to their feet. Apparently even the shadow king kneeled before the queen.

"It is forbidden for guild masters to give favourable treatment. Unless physically disabled, all members of the guilds tasked with providing food will work to bring back food and divide it equally to each recorded living individual of Arendelle. Each member brought before her majesty are not registered as invalid and yet proven to have not gone outside the protection of the city since last light."

"Objection," guild master Cod stuttered. "We provided the records to prove the accusation false."

Hans gasped as the cold suddenly sharpened, making the air almost too thin to breathe.

"Vizier, bring forth the evidence," the queen spoke, and even though her voice was low it echoed.

The vizier stepped into view of the fishermen, his hands in his sleeves from where he produced a familiar roll of hide.

"This is the records the Fisherman guild provided during my latest check-up." He rolled it out on the floor, and frost instantly crept over the material. "And this," Haddock pulled a different scroll, this one made of a hide that shifted in colour, and rolled it out above the first, "are the records maintained by her majesty's right hand fairy."

Hans stiffened. "There're fairies in the city?"

The room, already cold enough the humans inside would die within the hour, grew ever colder as the queen leaned forward.

"What are you implying? Do you truly believe I would neglect my duties and have only a human watch over you?"

The fishermen crumbled, curled in on themselves and tried to preserve some warmth by violent shaking and rubbing themselves.

"My queen, please reign in your temper. It would do us no good if you killed these people with your temper."

Hans heard the vizier's voice, and to Hans absolute horror, the chill subsided. There was a rumour, one whispered quietly into trusted ears during silent hours, that the queen was a descendant to the Ice Sprite, commonly referred to as The Ice Queen, who had originally come to Arendelle and caused the eternal winter they now lived with, and it was the current queen who maintained the winter. Hans had never believed the tale of The Ice Queen and Silver Dragon Freya, scoffed at it even, but if the temperature in the air was caused by the queen, just what were they standing before?

"May I proceed, your majesty?" Haddock spoke after a moment, his familiar voice as calm as ever.

"You may."

The vizier bowed his head. "It is forbidden to refuse a citizen of Arendelle their rations. However, the paragraph that states a suspected or unrecognized character can be denied rations has repeatedly been abused by The Fisherman guild."

"O-objection," Hans tried. "Ho-how can you say it is a repeated occurrence when-n d-d-dig-build have s-so ma-many members who won-n't show they face? Invest-t-tigating them has b-b-been denied."

The room fell silent, but at the very least the temperature didn't drop again.

"Objection noted," the queen said at last. "Vizier, do you have knowledge of this?"

"Indeed." Haddock's voice sounded much too grave, and for a second Hans thought he'd won this one.

For only a second.

"The tunnels Dig-Build's diggers work in are infested with a virus that causes deformations, attacks the voice chords and lungs and every now and then even causes death. The cold of the tunnels keep the virus somewhat contained, but once out in the city where it's warmer, the virus is at risk of spreading. Dig-Build are all aware of this, as is Death guild, and precautions are taken before anyone infected can leave the tunnels. So far there is no cure but Death guild has managed to provide a salve that isolates the virus. Due to this, investigations of the diggers identities has been stopped. Instead, identification is done directly to Dig-Build's guild master who then provides their numbers, names and identifying attributes to each guild providing food."

Hans wanted to call bullshit. A virus? What was a virus? Some kind of bug? But North had indeed come over with such a list. Not that Hans and his father had kept it. However, his father placed a hand on Hans to stop him, the pallor of his face speaking of knowledge Hans didn't have.

"Guild master Cod," the queen spoke. "Explain why Hunters and Ice-Breakers have the added numbers of Dig-Build on their records, why there are several witnesses saying they saw Dig-Build's guild master talk to all three food providing guild masters. But not you."

Hans legs were so cold he felt no pain when his father gripped his calf in a death-grip. "The-there might have b-been a… a mis…"

"Mistake?"

The fishermen had dealt with the vizier for as long as Haddock had held the title, and there were times when Hans had been afraid of him. But never had his voice alone frozen him on the spot in raw, mind-numbing fear.

"Are you saying that when I asked for these reports, they were not updated? After two days?"

The fishermen gasped for air as the chill once again intensified.

"The punishment for this alone is death," the queen spoke. "But your crimes have mounted over the months you have tried to play the system. I hereby sentence you to the Cage. Send them away and have all preparations ready in two hours."

Hans sprung up, wanting to protest, to plead, to beg object reason anything anythinganything but the Cage! The ice guards grabbed him and he heard his father and guildmates' screams echo around the room along with his own when maws of snow and ice opened and swallowed them whole.

The Cage. Camicazi had never seen it before, but from the looks on the faces of the older members of her guild, she gathered it was a terrible fate. What surprised her though was that Vanessa took her hand and told her to come along and watch the execution.

"Is it Hans? Is he going to die?" Camicazi asked.

"Oh he will not only die, child," Vanessa said, and her dark face was pale and her hand shook.

All around them parents took their children, holding them as close as they could, carrying them when possible, in the same direction as Vanessa, the flow of people a trickle that then spread out along the edges of the square, as far away as possible from the thorny structure as they could go while still able to see what happened.

"No one from Dig-Build is here," Camicazi observed.

"Their adults have work to do. I'm taking you because you need to see everything. You must know what happens to those who break the rules and how deeply the queen and Vizier's cruelty runs."

The Cage. Hans remembered his father bringing him to watch a Cage Execution when he was younger, a hunter who had brought home two baby mammoths. His father had explained the hunters were only allowed to bring home one baby mammoth every second light.

"When it comes to preserving the food supplies and wild life, Vizier gets vicious," Cod had said.

Hans never forgot what he saw inside the clear structure that day. The vizier had offered a riddle as a way of escape, a way of not encountering the drooling dragon trying to find its prey in a labyrinth of icy thorns. The hunter had failed the riddle, and the dragon had gotten him. A dragon that had enjoyed the hunt and eaten the pieces it tore off the hunter's body while the man kept running until he could only scream.

So when the ice guard released him, Hans first saw what he'd expected to see. But as he blinked, the ice thorn labyrinth from last time wasn't there. Instead he and his father and guild-mates stood huddling in an open space, right outside the palace, with only the cage itself surrounding them.

"Monster! What kind of messed up trap have you thought up this time?!" Cod shouted upwards, and Hans lifted his gaze to see a balcony above, holding the vizier, the queen and the princess. Interestingly, the last one looked rather green, as if she'd never witnessed The Cage before.

"Same as always," Haddock responded. "You've always been so eager when the Cage appears, Guild Master. I was starting to suspect you'd figured out the answers to my riddles."

Hans glanced at his father, hope fluttering just to die at the pallor of the elder man's face.

"There are five of you, and I don't have enough mad dragons in the cellar that would eat that much human. So today…"

Vizier Haddock disappeared from the balcony in a hissing cloud of smoke, and reappeared in front of the fishermen.

There were loud gasps and short cries from the crowd of spectators. Hans couldn't breathe as his heart, already beating erratically, suddenly took up too much space in his chest as it tried to escape the cold nails that gripped him like the claws of a dragon. The vizier looked too content. It wasn't him, this wasn't Haddock, this wasn't happening it was a mistake it wasn't fair this wasn't happening!

"I thought of something interesting."

A loud banging sound took all of Hans's attention. In the wall behind Haddock, guarded by ice guards, was a barred gate, and a dark claw was reaching out, scratching the ground and wailing with a choked, unnatural pitch.

"Terminator," Haddock said as way of introduction, his voice much too pleasant. "Uncontrollable, even for me. Quite hard to kill and quite a pest to other dragons as well, so I keep it underground hoping it will die either of age or boredom. I haven't fed it yet. That's your job."

Hans breathed out, the fear ebbing away to leave space for suspicion. He'd always viewed the vizier as someone who liked to be in charge, much like he himself enjoyed being the head of the guild in his father's absence. In the same sense Hans had always thought Haddock simply took charge of the city because the queen couldn't be bothered and the vizier was nothing but a bully with a lot of dangerous followers and the queen at his back.

The man before him now Hans couldn't recognize. Couldn't fathom what he was thinking. Why was he in the Cage with them about to release a dragon he couldn't control?

So Hans and his father and guildmates all took slow steps backwards.

"Oh, you misunderstand me. Like I said; there're too many of you and only one crazed dragon. It would leave some of you alive."

"SHUT UP!" Cod shrieked. "Get on with it! What's the riddle?! How do we get out?!"

Vizier blinked, as if surprised. His voice was clear and free of any mocking when he spoke. "Riddle? There is none. You're going to feed the Terminator. They eat other dragons. But this one's on a diet, so the dragons he eats are…" his gaze lowered to the fishermen's feet "small."

Hans looked down. By his foot stood the smallest little dragon he'd ever seen, brightly yellow with a long body and stinger at the end of its tail. It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Small enough for him to step on and crush to death. Small enough that Hans barely hesitated as the idea of feeding the big dragon with this little thing would let him live and go home filled his head. He snatched it up and felt it bite and sting his fingers.

"Good job. Throw it through the bars."

"That's it?" Hans hesitated. This was too easy. It was wrong. Haddock wasn't stupid, this was the Cage. Nobody left the Cage alive.

"That's it," the vizier nodded. His smile was cold, his eyes like rocks. Nobody left the Cage alive.

"You do it," Hans ordered and held his fist out. His arms were starting to go numb.

Haddock rolled his eyes, hissed something at the trashing dragon who stopped moving long enough for the man to pick it up by the end of its tail. Once hanging the dragon started screaming and wiggle again and the vizier threw it through the bars at the shadow of a dragon on the other side. It screamed and trashed.

"That's how you do it. No go. I'll let you out of the Cage once you've fed the Terminator."

Around him, his guildmates scattered, eyes to the ground, but Hans couldn't move. He sank to his knees. His body felt stiff and hot. Too hot. He was burning.

From his position on the ground, Hans spotted the same tiny dragon he'd caught and Haddock had thrown come crawling out through the barred gate. Not dead, not eaten, and made its way over to his father.

Someone screamed. Suddenly they were all screaming. Cod saw the yellow dragon and Hans couldn't shout at him not to.

The thing with humans, especially the prideful and haughty, was that they failed to see danger in anything smaller than them. Hiccup strolled leisurely before the barred gate, ignoring the swearing of the mutated dragon inside. It was high off its own fumes anyway, the poor thing. Not enough to not recognize a more dangerous creature though.

Hans was already minutes away from death, Cod had just caught the Venomous Vorpent and was making his way towards Hiccup and the gate, gritting his teeth as the tiny dragon trashed in his hand, pumping as much venom into his blood as it could.

"Here! Now let us out!"

On the other side of the Cage, one after another, the fisherman started screaming.

Hiccup carefully picked the Vorpent out of Cod's hands and hissed at it, thanking it for the help, before he threw it at the gate. All dragons have good reflexes and can turn their bodies around while airborne, flying type or not.

To Cod he said "As long as there are rampant dragons inside the Cage It will stay up."

"We caught your little snakes and fed your pet! Now let us out! Call off whatever's attacking my men!"

Hiccup felt his temper flare and his face stretch in the smile that by now was an automatic reaction.

"Guild master, this is the Cage. This is an execution."

He watched as the poison finally caught up with Cod, watched his limbs fail him and body stiffen, his eyes grew bloodshot and steam started pouring from his pores as his blood started boiling. The man fell flat on his face, groaning as he tried to breathe but his muscles had grown too stiff to allow the action.

Another fisherman approached Hiccup, spasming and unable to speak as electrical currents ran through his nervous system, visible through his skin. In his hand was an Electricsquirm. They were slow-witted, and their electric attacks were normally not deadly. But holding onto one for long enough, allowing the current to seize your muscles, eventually caused heart-failure.

The fisherman hadn't even reached Hiccup when he fell, his hands cramping around the tiny dragon and unable to let go.

The other two had been caught by an army of ice nanos. This species had adapted well to the icy environment over the past thousand years, and had developed a poison that would only bring about intense pain for some eight to nine days if you got away from their nest fast enough. More than a hundred bites however, was a fatal dose. Hiccup didn't go near the bodies, able to make out the glint of blue eyes that had started to eye him, but was fairly confident the men were dead since they were no longer screaming.

Tapping his staff in the ground, Hiccup used the sound of wood against ice to replace himself back into the balcony and Queen Elsa's side.

"You… are a monster," Anna whispered, shaking from head to toe as the freeze spell had forced her to watch the execution.

"Would you rather see the children of this city starve to death?" Elsa hissed from the corner of her mouth before she stepped forward to speak to the people.

"Offenders of the rules are unacceptable, let this serve as a warning to all of you, and may I never again have to set up The Cage."

Camicazi had never been afraid of Vizier Haddock. The opinions about him were split, but she'd never understood the hatred he received. To her he was like a guardian, someone who had warm hands and who listened if Camicazi spoke to him.

Now she was afraid. At the same time, Hans had been cruel and she was hungry but now he was dead. But he was dead because he broke the rules. Vizier wouldn't have killed Hans if he hadn't broken the rules.

As they made their way home, Camicazi couldn't help but ask.

"Vanessa… why is Vizier so strict about rules?"

To her surprise, the elder huntress grit her teeth, something she did when she was unhappy about something.

"The rules ensure we live, are fed and have a home at all times. That sometimes entails we are restricted in how much game we can bring back, but the restriction is there to keep food coming. It's already been proven time and again that excessive hunting one year will lead to food-shortage the next. We brought home two baby mammoths one year, before you were born, and Master Eret and the head hunter were put to death in the Cage. Vizier forbid us to hunt mammoth for four whole years. Not that it mattered, because we found there were no mammoths to hunt. I reported this to Vizier myself…" Vanessa grit her teeth again. "And then Vizier came back to tell us where the mammoth trails had moved to."

Camicazi lowered her gaze, and then lifted it again to watch Dig-Build scurry around to finish the repairs on their guild house. They looked more energetic today.

"I guess the remains of the Fisherman guild provided the rations properly this time?" Vanessa asked one of the guards outside their own guild.

"Indeed. You know that odd croon Gothi? She's taken charge for now."

"Sure. The youngsters seem to respect her," Vanessa muttered carelessly and walked inside.

Camicazi lingered, watching Dig-Build, hesitated, wondered why she hesitated and walked up to the Dig-Build guild master.

"Hans and his dad are dead," she told him.

He looked down, eyes wide and very blue. Then his face went grim, but he nodded and signed appreciation. Actually, most of them sent her a sign of appreciation.

A Digger passed her. They really did look strange, with bandages covering every inch of exposed skin. None of them looked her way though, and the guild master was now signing at her to go home.

Camicazi turned to leave, but not before casting another look after the Digger.

Anna was once again locked up in her room, curled up on her bed. Olaf stood beside her, silent and smiling and oblivious.

Today was a lot to take in. First what Elsa had accused the fairy of and her punishment. It was the first time Anna witnessed blood and torture and couldn't decide what frightened her more; that Hiccup hadn't been there so Anna could blame Elsa's behaviour on him or Elsa's wrath. Anna had often seen the blooms of frost around Elsa when she got frustrated. This was something else. This was Elsa's power because Hiccup couldn't control that.

Then it was the humans. Anna had watched them shake and rub themselves and that odd phenomenon when their breath misted before their faces. Again, for the first time, Anna realized humans do feel the cold much more than she did. Even Hiccup had been shivering.

And the Cage. Anna didn't even want to remember it. From her perk she hadn't been able to tell what was killing the men. To her, it looked like they just keeled over dead. But they had been screaming, and Hiccup had walked among them as if he enjoyed it. And beside her, Elsa had looked worried. "For Hiccup", she had said. "Because he really has not control over the dragons", she had said.

Where had Elsa gone? What had happened to her to make her this way? When had she stopped being the sister and friend Anna had grown up with?

For the first time in her life, Anna wanted someone other than Elsa to wrap their arms around her and offer comfort. Someone other than Olaf.

The face of a boy with brown eyes popped up in her memories. The boy from yesterday. The one she'd made friends with. Anna hadn't seen him in the crowd. Certainly, he would be on Anna's side. She just had to explain what Hiccup had done today, done to Elsa.

Surely he would understand.