Off-topic? Ha! No such thing! :)
So this is sort of an overall off-topic post for all other random things that don't quite fit the purpose of the request post.
You know, questions you'd like answered, random other bits of fluff, discussions about how thus-and-such pairing rocks way hardcore ...
So ... *claps* Get to it! Post to your Disney-loving heart's content! ♥
You know, questions you'd like answered, random other bits of fluff, discussions about how thus-and-such pairing rocks way hardcore ...
So ... *claps* Get to it! Post to your Disney-loving heart's content! ♥
Hiccup frowned, and looked over his shoulder. It took him a moment to process what he was seeing, and recognise the chunks of ice scattered on the ground.
“Wo-argh!” He rolled sideways and to his feet in a movement of which his father might actually have been proud, backing away from the flap of the tent and, he realised a moment too late, his knife. “You’re a wildling! You’re... you’re...”
He trailed off, though his heart was still pounding. For a start, if he couldn’t understand her then she probably couldn’t understand a word that he was saying either. Secondly, all that she knew was that she had woken up to find a stranger with a knife looking at her. And thirdly, magic or not, it was a bit hard to really be scared of a girl dressed in rags and with an injury that clearly left her in pain.
Breathing deeply, Hiccup lowered his hands again, and walked back round so that he was in sight of the mouth of the tent. The girl was watching him warily, one hand still outstretched, but she made no move to grab for his knife or to attack him again.
Nobody was quite sure who - or what - the wildlings were. They were pretty sure that they were human, although even that was a matter of some debate after a few drinks or when everyone had been sheltering together in the Great Hall for a week or so. But Arendelle denied any knowledge of them, and were more than a little smug about the great crevasse that cut off the southernmost quarter of the island from the rest of it. Arendelle controlled the only bridge, not that it was much used, and to hear them tell it was enough to keep out any wildlings.
All that the Vikings knew was that they attacked in the night and stole from Berk. They had been responsible for more than a few deaths over the years, although the Vikings had probably managed to return the favour in the number of wildlings they captured and killed. And a lot of them used magic.
Hiccup had never seen ice, though. Well, he’d seen plenty of ice - this was, after all, Berk - just not of the magical sort. Usually if there was a wildling with magical abilities out there, Hiccup managed to run into them in some horrifyingly embarrassing manner. At least with dragons you knew just from looking at them what they were capable of.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he repeated. In the spirit of honesty, he added: “And I would really appreciate it if you didn’t hurt me either. Deal?”
He slowly started to close the distance back again. The girl just sat there watching him. At one point, her hand twitched and Hiccup flinched away, but she did not shoot more ice. He could not helping the fact that he could see his breath on the air, though, and that there was ice creeping across the floor of her tent. It spread to within a few inches of the trollwart net, then stopped.
“Well, at least that worked.”
He took another step closer, but a look of panic crossed the girl’s face and she scrambled out of the tent. Her ankle seemed to fail her, and she stumbled back against the wall, where ice immediately began to spread around her.
“Woah, hey, hey!” Hiccup protested, holding up his hands as if someone was threatening to use him as a knife throwing target again. “Look, I just want... I want to help you.”
Even as he said the words, part of him was surprised at himself. The only thing that most Vikings hated more than wildlings was dragons. But dragons were dragons, and the wildling girl in front of him was looking very human and very hurt, and Hiccup just couldn’t summon up the appropriate hatred for her.
“Sit down,” he said, “let me have a look at your ankle. Maybe I can help.”
Healing was supposed to be Gothi’s job, the prerogative of women in general, but any Viking was expected to be able to help a comrade in battle. Besides, Hiccup had sustained more than a few injuries of his own over the years.
Reply
She fell the last foot or so with a grunt of pain, injured ankle stretching out in front of her. Hiccup crouched down beside it, eyes not leaving hers and trying to look as reassuring as he could. Possibly even as if he knew what he was doing here. Finally, the girl gave the tiniest of nods, and he looked down towards her ankle.
“I... yeah, that’s bad,” he said. Her ankle was clearly broken, foot practically hanging beneath it, swollen and bruised. Her legs were scraped, and he glanced up to see that her arms and cheek were as well. Hiccup winced as he realised that his net could well have caused her to fall down the tunnel that he had found. “And I’m a terrible person.”
She was a wilding, part of his mind was still screaming. He was supposed to want to kill her. But instead Hiccup carefully wrapped one hand around her ankle and the other around her foot, and tried to move them back into alignment.
The girl gave a hiss of pain, trying to pull out of his grip, and ice started forming on Hiccup’s vest. He dropped her foot as quickly as he dared. “Okay, okay! I know, it hurts. But if it’s dislocated, then it needs to go back or you might lose it.” Lost limbs were more often due to dragons, but there were a few around the village that had been broken rather than eaten. And Hiccup himself remembered dislocating a finger when he was a kid. “Please,” he said earnestly.
Her hands curled into fists, and she turned her face away with her eyes tightly shut. Hiccup took that as a yes.
“It’s a really good thing that you don’t know I’ve never done this before,” he said, taking hold of her leg again. Gobber had put his finger back into place, and the terror of the moment had never quite left him. It was probably going to be worse with a larger joint. “Okay, three, two, one...
He felt the grate of bone on bone as he pulled on her ankle then let it pop back into place. She gave a short, harsh scream, and the ice around her cracked and fell to the ground in shards; Hiccup flinched.
“Sorry! Sorry... that should help, though, honestly...”
There was sweat on her forehead, but as he watched it froze and fell away. The ice around them retreated, curling back in towards the girl, and Hiccup actually felt the air around him get warmer. He looked up at her face again cautiously.
“Is that better?”
For a moment she kept her eyes closed, still breathing heavily through her nose, then she turned her face back towards him again. Her knuckles were not so white either. She said something; Hiccup cocked his head uncertainly, and she said it again, slow and enunciated.
Ah, he had a suspicion what she meant. “You’re welcome,” he said.
He put her foot back on the ground again - she winced at the movement, but only a little - and rocked back on his heels. Even with the bones set, it wasn’t as if her ankle was just going to heal up immediately. The usual next step was to get the person to a healer, or a healer to the person, but that wasn’t exactly an option right now.
“You know, it feels kind of weird not even knowing your name,” he said to the girl, almost conversationally. “I mean, weirder than this whole situation, of course. My name’s Hiccup.”
The girl was frowning slightly now, which may or may not have been an improvement on the fear. She tried to curl her foot back up towards her, but hissed through her teeth and grabbed her calf instead. Hiccup let her sit there for a moment, watching the ice on her hand slowly fade away again, before he caught her eye and pointed to himself. “Hiccup,” he said.
This time, she definitely frowned. Hiccup looked up at the sky for a moment, trying to think of some way to make it clearer he was introducing himself and not making random sounds, until finally an idea struck him. He shuffled sideways to one of the ferns in the sinkhole, and shook one of its fronds like a hand.
Reply
More to his shock than his relief, the girl gave a weak giggle. “Elsa,” she replied.
“Elsa?” he said, and she nodded. Hiccup laughed as well, this time in relief, just as another thought struck him. People assumed that the wildlings didn’t have language, were hardly better than animals. There was no sign that they had homes, or kept animals, and even the clothes that they wore were stolen a lot of the time. It was hardly as if they were people.
But Elsa had a name. A name and a broken ankle, and that added up to so much humanity that it was difficult for even the ice to count against it. He couldn’t even really explain why he wanted so badly to help her - it had just been sort of thinkable not to. He wouldn’t leave Snotlout with a broken ankle, after all, and Snotlout had done a lot more to Hiccup than Elsa ever had. Often he had bruises to prove it.
“So, Elsa,” he shifted to get as comfortable as he could, “do you come here often?” He really couldn’t blame her for looking confused. How did you even communicate with someone where you had no shared language to begin with? Well, he supposed they sort of did in what was around them.
He pointed to a nearby boulder. “Rock,” he said. For a moment, Elsa looked at him as if he was absolutely mad, an expression which he was relatively used to considering how often Gobber used it. His father was more likely to just look disappointed. He pointed to the pool of water in the middle of the cave. “Pond.” And finally upwards. “Sky.”
Elsa’s eyes seemed to light up as she caught on. “Keiven,” she said, pointing to the boulder. “Ruk?”
“Rock,” he said, emphasising the vowel.
“Rock,” she said, more clearly. Hiccup gave another relieved laugh, and turned his attention to the other things around them. Pointing and grunting worked pretty well with the twins, after all.
Elsa was definitely better at this than the twins were. As quickly as rock,they went through plant, sky, tent, fireplace, knife, net, plant, fern - he was fairly sure that he had managed to distinguish between those two one Elsa started pointing to different plants and saying ‘fern’ with a questioning look - and the more topical ankle. At that point it slowed down a bit as they slipped into miming at each other, and Hiccup tried to work out whether Elsa meant fall or break or hurt when she was pointing at her ankle.
He was trying to work out how to mime magic when his stomach growled. Loudly. Feeling the familiar crawl of embarrassment, Hiccup looked up to see that the sky overhead was beginning to darken. This time of year, the days were starting to get shorter, but he’d still somehow lost a lot of time trying to communicate with a wildling girl.
It was probably a good thing that Gobber would presume he was looking for trolls or something.
“Look, I really have to go,” he said. Elsa looked at him curiously. “Me, go,” he pointed towards the tunnel that would lead back to the surface.
Her face fell, and he couldn’t help a pang of regret that he was going to have to leave her here. “I’ll be back tomorrow,” he protested, then realised that wasn’t really going to help all that much. Hiccup paused for a moment, looking around again, then got up and shuffled closer to Elsa. She drew away slightly, but did not move far, and Hiccup held up his hands in placation again.
There was a bare patch of earth near to her. Hiccup smoothed it down with one hand, then picked up his knife. Elsa started to breathe faster, ice crawling out from around her again, and Hiccup quickly put the point down to the dirt.
“It’s okay! I just don’t exactly have a pen with me.” He sketched out a sun on the horizon, facing towards Elsa, then a crescent moon, and another sun with stylised rays around it. “Today,” he said, starting at one end, “tonight, tomorrow. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He tapped the sun for emphasis.
“Tomorrow,” said Elsa. She nodded.
“All right. Now, you should get back to your tent,” he said, gesturing from her to the lean-to and back again. “Do you want some help?”
Reply
“Okay, let’s try again,” said Hiccup. He looked his other arm underneath her shoulder and pulled her straight to her feet, earning a yelp which might have been surprise, pain, or a combination of the two. Turning, he slung her arm over his shoulders and pulled his weight onto her before she had a chance to pull away. “That’s better.”
It was only a few steps back to the lean-to, and Elsa seemed to weigh barely anything. That made a change after living in Berk for so long. He helped her sit back down, then picked up the net and slung it back over his shoulder.
“Tomorrow, all right?”
“Tomorrow,” said Elsa.
It wasn’t until he stumbled out of the firethorn bush that he actually stopped to wonder what in the hell he was doing.
Reply
Hiccup's a precious sweetie and so helpful. And hah, his interaction with Gobber is perfect.
Now I have an image in my head of post-HTTYD (or even tv series timeframe) Hiccup having to help Snotlout (or someone else) with a dislocation. I sort of picture it like in the Prince Caspian film where Peter (with a dislocated arm) is sort of about to get sentimental with Edmund and Edmund just sort of puts the arm back in place. I can see Hiccup being like, talk about something Snotlout, so he can keep Snotlout distracted from pain.
Reply
And Gobber is the mom in this family, I'm afraid. Sorry, Gobber. You and your silk skivvies.
Oh man, Hiccup would totally do that. And it would have to be Snotlout, because Astrid would just man up and the twins would be arguing with each other, and Fishlegs has the sense not to get himself into those sort of situations. Either that, or it would be Astrid setting a dislocation for Hiccup, because he does get himself into those sort of situations.
I had the most terrible image today of Snotlout trying to hit on Elsa, either before he knows that she's wildling or further down the line one everything is getting more peaceful on the island. Because she's this ridiculously hot older woman and... well, he's Snotlout. And it's either going to end with Anna punching him, Hookfang setting him on fire (for the hell of it, but also because I can see Elsa being the friend-to-all-dragons sort almost as much as Hiccup is) or Elsa freezing his ass. Not sure which would be funniest.
Reply
And Hiccup would probably be running his mouth as Astrid is working on his dislocation and she just keeps letting him talk because the more distracted he is, the better. And then it goes back into place, and oop, he curses and then apologizes.
I feel like Astrid's probably going to end up getting some medical training from Gothi or whoever has the skills for that because Hiccup's reckless and he probably gets hurt all the time. Plus, she probably tends to his amputated leg fairly regularly.
Hiccup's sort of like Harry Potter in that way. I just keep thinking of Ginny's comment about "He's covered in blood. Why is he always covered in blood." in the Half-Blood Prince film.
Hell, Hiccup is basically Viking Harry Potter with no magic.
Wouldn't be funniest if ALL of those things happen to him? Anna punches him, and then Hookfang sets him on fire, and then Elsa freezes him.
Reply
Psh, that's true. Hiccup is probably always getting himself injured in stupid ways. I was considering adding a line at the end about someone catching him appearing out of a thorn bush, but I might leave that for a chapter or two. And it'll probably be Astrid, because Astrid/Hiccup is definitely still happening as well.
Snotlout will probably also consider hitting on Anna, just the once, then remember the Elsa Incident and be like, "You know what, I'll skip to Ruff instead, it's probably safer for my health". Snotlout, finding a girlfriend is not process of elimination. I'll probably introduce Kristoff sooner or later, because I do find Anna/Kristoff cute, but it rather saddens me that I can't really think of anyone that would be suitable to pair Elsa with. Because I still struggle to pair her with guys (Jack Frost is an exception there) and Ruffnut... yeah, no, I just don't see that. Maybe Heather, though. Heather was cute.
This could turn into "my favourite plots from Dragons, with Elsa added for kicks". Shuffled around a bit in time, because Skrill. Although Elsa not being on a dragon would explain why she isn't involved in various of the stories. *innocent whistle*
And you have a point, and Snotlout should be used to that kind of abuse. So Anna punches him, he falls onto Hookfang who startles awake and sets him on fire, then Elsa freezes him to put the ice out, honestly. Looks like this is going to be further down the line, when Anna is around and when Elsa is recovering enough to have her mischevious streak back.
Oh man, what dragon should I give Anna?! I think she'd love any of them. My gut said Nadder, but that's just because I like Nadders. Maybe that cute green Monstrous Nightmare we see at the beginning of When Lightning Strikes. Though the Devilish Dervish from the books is pretty cool. Kristoff is just like, "Yeah, I'll stick with the reindeer, thanks."
Reply
Ooh, good, yes, Astrid/Hiccup. Here's a clip of them being absolutely adorable sweeties in the sequel. I think the general fandom consensus is that the scene is longer, and has been shortened/cut and will probably be longer in the theater release, but it's still super cute.
I'm still in love with the fact that Astrid's reaction in Frozen upon seeing Hiccup after he's been gone for about a day or so and some major stuff has gone down in his absence is to run up to him and hug him.
Heather/Elsa would be great because her two episodes are basically just 40 minutes of most of the dragon riders just kind of crushing on her too varying degrees. Except Ruffnut. Ruffnut's just like, making comments about hens and roosters, finding the whole thing hilarious. And Heather and Astrid, it's just sort of like "Viking Lesbian Subtext: The Two Part Episode". Astrid even gets a hug from her. I still love when Astrid comes to tell Hiccup about Heather's deception and like, she opens the Haddock door, and Hiccup's lying next to the hearth, Toothless kinda stirs and looks at her and then just lets Astrid KICK Hiccup awake. Toothless, lying down on the job. Heck, even Stormfly liked Heather.
I'm still super fond of her having a Terrible Terror. It just sort of feels like it'd work with her character. Or maybe she and Elsa can ride a Zippleback together. Perhaps she and Elsa are way better at Zippleback riding than the twins are. Or worse. But you're probably right, she'd totally love any of them. Hopefully that cute green MN works better with Anna than Hookfang works with Snotlout.
Reply
And maybe it's partially because I've just remembered a fest I signed up for, and I'm trying to write Kida/Milo pregfic to meet the deadline (which is in three days, I'm such a dumbass), but I kinda hope that HTTYD3 features or ends with Astrid/Hiccup kids. Three generations of dragon riders would be the cutest goddamn thing ever.
The Heather episodes made me laugh like no other on that count. She is just obviously flirting with all of the boys to get information on dragons. Though I don't read Hiccup as flirting back or interested, just being friendly and, well, Hiccup. Though he did look disappointed at the lack of hug right at the end. I think he just likes having people talk to him nicely for once. Ruffnut finding it all hilarious was absolutely brilliant, and I consider it more evidence that she does have more (slightly rattled) brains than her brother. She knows what's going on. Nobody's even tagged for Heather yet on AO3, sadly, so there's no more fic about her. But I'd love to see her in a more active role (the stealing dragons was pretty cool, but she didn't seem to be even thinking of another way of getting her parents out of there).
Toothless, you fail as a guarddragon, I'm afraid.
Oh, Anna would totally have a Terror. Or possibly several. And just carry round loads of dragon nip and try to befriend every dragon that she came across, probably less successful than Hiccup "Dragon Whisperer" Haddock over there. Conqueror, no. Whisperer, yes. I don't think the dragons would have the same instinct to troll Anna as they seem to with Snotlout, but I foresee a few instances of running away from dragons that were tetchy when woken up.
I want to say better, but... I think it would depend where Elsa is at with riding dragons. If it's further down the line, they should be able to at least handle themselves because, sorry twins, you aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. But if it's early on, I can see there being a certain level of fail because Elsa is still going "Oh stars, this is too far from the ground DOWN DOWN" and Anna is going "This is AWESOME, GO HIGHER!" and it ends in a Twinsanity-style mess. And Hiccup is just like, "Okay, Anna, let's find you your own dragon then..."
Okay, I'm now trying to plot how to get Anna out of Arendelle and into Berk. I'm guessing that the whole sneak into Berk, Elsa meets Anna, finds out about her parents' deaths, flees, Anna goes to find her, all happens. I'm thinking about maybe making Hans distantly related to the Arendelle royalty? Like, he's a cousin twice removed or something, through his mother? And he's spent a year or two planning this, not a few days, so he's already done some bribing among the ministers/whoever is holding the power until Anna turns 18 or 21 (Elsa is still believed dead at this point). So Hans manages to wrangle his way into taking control of Berk, and sends people to try to kill Anna, and Hiccup says that he'll protect Anna and they should go back to the village. As this all happened arount the time that the Berk/Arendelle treaty was supposed to be being signed, everything gets pretty fucked up. And Hans refuses to renew the treaty for... some reason that he'll come up with... and locks down Arendelle.
And really, I do not know where I'm going with this. But it's fun along the way.
Reply
It'd be great to see three generations of dragonriders/Haddocks and super cute. I certainly hope to see it. Though, Dean DeBlois keeps talking about telling the story of why dragons are no more and Cressida Cowell's "There were dragons when I was a boy" remark that begins the first book of the series, and that just sort of... worries me deeply and I'm just like PROTECT TOOTHLESS AT ALL COSTS. Basically, all I want for the end of the series is Toothless and Hiccup living a long and happy life together. Seeing Hiccup and Astrid babies would be great as well.
Yeah, Hiccup's more like HEY NICE PERSON TO TALK TO but aw man I don't get a hug like Astrid got? And plus, he actually says this to Heather that amuses me to no end because of reasons: "We're trying to get some extra speed so we can stay on top of Astrid and Stormfly." Hiccup's too busy wanting to be on top of Astrid to be into Heather, apparently.
Tumblr user avannak has a whole Heather/Astrid tag that might be relevant to your interests. :)
Anna with like 20 Terrors would be funny. She'd be like a cat lady. In fact there's a videoout there where Gothi is shown with a shit ton of Terrors. Here's the video and here's a gifset I've reblogged on Tumblr. That video also has two cheek kisses between Hiccup and Astrid that's just GLORIOUS.
Anna, no don't wake up a sleeping dragon that's bad, come on. Sigh. And Hiccup is totally a Dragon Whisperer. He probably even actually whispers to dragons.
Yeah, early on it's probably not going to go well because as you note, Elsa would want to be on the ground and Anna would want to be higher, haha.
Ooh, political intrigue and backstabbing, I love it. Excellent. Hans you sneaky jerk. And having Hans being related to Arendelle royalty would mean he'd be somewhere on that line of succession anyway and boom.
It certainly sounds like a lot of fun.
Reply
That tumblr is so cute and glorious. There goes my afternoon.
Yeah, some of the things that Hiccup says to or about Astrid do make me laugh. Especially that "on top of" line. Also the one from Frightmare, which is "I don't just think about training dragons"/"Are you really saying that to me with a straight face?" because look, Astrid, babe, I think you get some room in that head of his as well.
Oh my god. "That's my future daughter in law". STOICK THE MATCHMAKER I love it.
Anna totally sort of collects Terrors. Like somehow they either find her somewhere to live or she and Elsa end up living with Stoick and Hiccup. Viking houses usually had extended families, though the ones on Berk look sort of small, but there might be enough room for them as well. Only Hiccup is like, "But I liked having a workroom. :(" When he loses it to be Anna's bedroom or something. And then there's Stoick, Gobber, Hiccup, Elsa, Anna, Toothless, and whatever dragons Anna has adopted this week. Stoick, your one dragon policy is completely going up in, er, smoke, I'm afraid. Like they're trying to do something in the house and there's just Terrors on the chairs, Terrors in the fireplace, Terrors sleeping in the saucepans, Terrors on Stoick's bed...
I realised something as well that having Elsa and Anna be 18 and 15 would work really well for lining up with the Flightmare. Because you see the aurora that night when they were 8 and 5, and apparently "Arvindell's Fire" or however you spell it comes every ten years. So that would totally be the time period for Elsa on a Flightmare oh my god.
On AO3, I wrangle Frozen, and I have the tags Hans Being An Asshole and Hans Being Less of an Asshole, which cracks me up. Also, it was the first fandom in the archive to get a lesbian X canonical, with Lesbian Elsa. I mean, we managed it before Sherlock and their canonically lesbian Irene. So I love Frozen fandom right now.
Reply
Oh gosh, I love that line about how he doesn't just think about training dragons and she's like, yeah right are you for real? Astrid, he certainly thinks about you, I'm sure. And that scene just sort of makes me think of this one scene in Gravity Falls where Dipper is like "It's not like I stay up thinking about her [Wendy]" cue cut to him lying in bed and he's like "Uh oh."
I love Stoick calling her his future daughter-in-law. Because of that line I'm just sort of assuming/headcanoning that Hiccup and Astrid are engaged by the time we see them again. Like, they (probably more like Hiccup) are putting off marriage for a few more years or something. They just seem the type to have a long ass engagement.
Haha, that's going to be one crazy household. Stoick and Gobber, Hiccup, Elsa, Anna, Toothless, and 100 Terrible Terrors. Three teenagers, a shit ton of dragons, and Stoick and Gobber.
I'm sure Stoick's one dragon policy/limit pretty much fell the moment he and Thornado bonded. Because, Stoick just fell in love hard with Thornado. Gosh, especially that line in Dragon Flower, "I spent my whole life trying to kill them. Now look at me." You beautiful man, Stoick. And gosh, his face when Hiccup tells him he did the right thing in setting him free to take care of the little Thunderdrums in Bing! Bam! Boom!, he looks so sad and turns back to wave goodbye and I just love Stoick so much. It should be interesting to see how he interacts with Skullcrusher in the sequel.
Stoick probably is just like, well, at least they're smaller than Toothless.
Ooh, that's even more excellent. Making that aurora be the one in Fright of Passage, Arven-whatever-it's-spelled.
That is super awesome. And speaking of canonically gay characters, apparently we have a canonically gay character in HTTYD2. Oh hell, I'll just say it: it's Gobber. Which is super awesome. Hiccup actually has a gay dad!
Reply
“So, how was the chiefing today?” he asked his father, ripping into another loaf of bread. Stoick looked surprised, and slightly flattered, to see Hiccup taking such an interest.
“Well, pretty busy,” said Stoick. “I had to look over to see what that wildling had stolen, then lead the search party to see if we could find any tracks.”
Luckily, he didn’t seem to see Hiccup jab himself in the cheek with a spoon at that point.
“Then it was up to the Arena to check out the new Gronckle that we’ve got to replace the last one, and down to the docks to see in the latest fishing boats. Seems like everything happens in the same day sometimes.”
“Oh, I hear you there,” said Hiccup.
“So...” Stoick looked a little bit uncomfortable as he realised he would actually need to continue the conversation. “How was your day, son?”
Hiccup probably should have seen that coming. He ate another spoonful of stew to buy himself time, swallowed, an answered. “Checked out a new sinkhole up in the foothills. It’s a dead end, we won’t need to worry about it.”
“Huh.” There was actually a note of being impressed in his voice, which Hiccup had far from expected. “Well, that’s good to know. Probably best to let Spitelout know anyway, so he and the men can keep an eye on it.”
“Will do, Dad,” said Hiccup. He might have to find an actual sinkhole to tell them about now, he figured. Although he could always claim that he couldn’t find it again. They’d probably believe him. “Hey, Gobber, did you want me at the forge tomorrow?”
“Eh, only in the afternoon,” said Gobber. “I’ve got to muck out the Monstrous Nightmare. That one’s a right bugger when he’s testy.”
“And with that charming mental image...” Maybe the thought of eyeballs in the stew wasn’t so bad after all. But at least it meant that he would be free tomorrow morning. “Say, is it all right if I do some work at the forge tonight? I want to work on my drawing out. We always need more nails, right?”
“Ah, help yourself,” said Gobber, waving his left arm vaguely. He had attached a knife to it for the evening meal, and there was a piece of bread impaled on the end. “You know how to work the bellows. Just keep to the medium quality, leave the good stuff.”
“Will do.” Well, he’d leave the good stuff, anyway. Gobber didn’t keep such tight track of the lowest quality scrap, which was actually what Hiccup was after. He was already trying to design in his head some way of encasing Elsa’s ankle so that she would still be able to move around, but which he could put together without needing to go and ask Gothi any questions. There were only a handful of people who could actually understand her, after all.
There was a sliding scale of what Hiccup was and was not allowed to get himself involved with. Wildlings were right out, considering how often Hiccup had managed to run into them, and when the dragons were about he was only allowed in the smithy with Gobber. But when wildlings and dragons were a part of everyday life, the smithy was relatively low on the danger scale, and he was allowed to work in there in the evening.
He drew out a dozen or so nails before actually turning his attention to the lower-quality metal. Normally, Gothi would use a mixture of eggs and flour to make a paste for the bandages, and just use stout wood for the splints. But Hiccup wasn’t exactly sure how that translated to the ankle, and it had definitely been around the joint that Elsa had seemed to be in most pain.
Reply
Mercifully, but Stoick and Gobber had obviously given up for the evening and gone to bed by the time that he got home. He occasionally bought things back from the smithy, but sometimes Gobber was actually interested in them, and Hiccup was honestly too tired by now to think of a good lie as to what he had bundled up under his arm.
The next morning, he bolted his breakfast fast enough for Stoick to look at him curiously, and made an escape while the sun was still coming up. This time, he had made sure to grab a pair of gloves to protect his hands, and a bag in which to carry everything. There were storm clouds already rolling in overhead as he made his way to the firethorn bush, slipped underneath, and climbed down into the tunnel once again.
“Elsa?” He called, as soon as he felt far enough away from the entrance that people would not notice a talking firethorn bush. “Elsa?”
He steadfastly refused to add are you still down here or anything of that sort. It felt quite ridiculous enough calling out to someone with whom you did not share a language and who, technically, you were supposed to either kill or capture, and take to the chief anyway. Hiccup was really, really trying not to think about that part.
It wasn’t as light in the sinkhole as it had been yesterday, and there was no response as he made his way in. Hiccup paused at the entrance to the tunnel, frowning, until he caught sight of a patch of white down by the edge of the pool.
“Elsa!” He broke into a run, trying not to drop the bundle under his arm, to where Elsa lay at the edge of the water. A path of ice ran from her tent to her current form; her head was on one arm, face-down, not moving.
Skidding to his knees, Hiccup grabbed Elsa’s shoulder. Ice spread up his hand and over his wrist as quick as a blink, stabbing cold into his skin, and he gave a sharp gasp. With a cry of her own, Elsa snapped away, rolling over onto her back and sitting up. Tiny flakes of snow formed in the air between them.
“It’s okay,” said Hiccup. He rubbed his hands together; the ice was already melting away and flaking off. “It’s fine. Look!” He held up his hands, wiggling his fingers. They were red, but unharmed. “I live on Berk, I can handle a bit of cold. But what... what are you doing down here?”
Though the panic was leaving her eyes, Elsa was still looking at him in faint bewilderment. He’d probably gone and thrown too many words about again. He pointed to her, then to the ground where she sat. “Why are you over here? You should be in your tent!” he pointed to the lean-to.
Elsa’s eyes followed his movements, then she pointed to the water beside her and mimed drinking from her hands.
“I forgot to get you any water,” surmised Hiccup. “Sorry about that. I’m not too good at this caretaker thing, am I? Well, hopefully today will go slightly better, starting with this.”
He produced a small loaf from the bag that he carried, and her eyes went wide. It was getting a bit stale, but somehow Hiccup got the feeling that Elsa didn’t care as he pressed it into her hands. She looked at it incredulously, then back at him, and said something.
“I didn’t get that,” said Hiccup.
Elsa gestured to the loaf, moving her hand in a circle to encompass the whole thing.
“Ah, oh, yeah, sure.” He nodded. “It’s for you, help yourself.”
The nod was probably enough. Elsa ripped off the end of the loaf and started eating, not even bothering to wipe the mud off her hands. Hiccup had overheard his father saying to Gobber that they had caught the wildling by the stores, but that not much had been taken. He’d guessed that she was just hungry.
Reply
Elsa followed his finger, frowning, and tried to pull away the first time he went to help her to her feet. When Hiccup sighed, though, she let him put one arm under her shoulders again, and limped the few yards over to the boulder. Her breathing was heavy with pain, but she did not cry out even as she half-collapsed onto it, still clutching the loaf of bread.
Hiccup backed away a step, then crouched down at her feet with the cast in hand. The bruises on her foot were really coming out now, and the swelling was worse. It had probably been the net that made her fall, and he felt another pang of guilt. Nothing that he could do now but try to help her, though.
He lined up the cast with her foot, but Elsa tried to edge it away, despite the obvious pain in her expression.
“Please?” Hiccup looked up at her. “It’ll help.”
“Help,” repeated Elsa carefully.
Hiccup nodded, then gave a hopeful smile. They were really going to have to figure out this language barrier. Finally, Elsa nodded as well, and he set about fitting the brace to her ankle.
Once or twice, he heard Elsa grunt with pain, and he found himself saying, “Sorry” every time her foot so much as twitched, but she let him slip the metal frame around her ankle, the other slim struts sitting on either side of her leg, and strap it into place with the leather. It looked a little bit like the casts that Gothi made, and a little bit more like the frames that people used when they lost an arm or leg. He had figured it was going to have to do a job somewhere between the two until her foot healed.
By the time that he looked up, Elsa was finishing off the last of the loaf of bread, and risking a hopeful glance towards him. Smiling, Hiccup produced a second loaf from the bag, along with some dried fish that hopefully wasn’t too hard and a lump of cheese that he’d trimmed the mould off. Stoick and Gobber would probably both presume that the other one had eaten it.
“Ei tiikos,” she said, and he was pretty sure he recognised the words from when she had thanked him before, “Hiccup.”
“It’s no problem.” Sort of the least he could do, when he was responsible for the broken foot. “Hey, can I ask you something?” And he had been doing so well on not asking stupid questions, as well. Hiccup used the point of his knife to sketch an outline of the island on the ground between them, with the mountains separating the smaller area of Berk from the larger lands of Arendelle. “Are you from here?”
He pointed to the centre of the map, and Elsa frowned at him. “Berk,” said Hiccup, indicating the northern end, then gesturing to himself. “I come from Berk.” He indicated the southern end. “Arendelle. Wildlands.” He used the hilt of the knife to point to Elsa. “You come from the Wildlands?”
Elsa looked over the map again, then used her good foot to point first to Arendelle, then to the centre of the island. “Arendelle. Maruloet. I come from...” she paused, and gestured to both again with her foot as she took another bite of the cheese.
“Both?” said Hiccup softly, sitting back.
Reply
Leave a comment