Frosted Scales - When Worlds Collide: A HTTYD X Frozen Tale

What Was Once Lost

Sitting just past the opening of a cave at the peak of Craig's Bluff, Elsa is breathing deeply. The hike, more than the weather, causing the stitch in her side. She misses Toothless at moments like this. Her envy of his ability to fly cut deep at that moment.

After she can breathe normally, Elsa decides to venture further into the cave. Craig's Bluff is notorious for snow and wind all year round. It is unlikely she'll find anything out there until it clears up if it ever does. It seems more likely to her that what she seeks will be in here.

Unlike on the hike, her magic returns in a torrent as soon as she crossed the threshold. The reunion almost made her weep with joy. How the area outside was so dead and inside is so abundant with magical power lay heavy on her mind.

She draws magic to her palm, using it to cast light down the tunnel. Why not explore a little?

The tunnel is rough roughly carved into the stone, curving to the right. It is clear someone, or something, traversed through here a lot over many years, the floor was worn smooth. It's plenty spacious in the passage, it is about a story and a half tall and equally as wide. The Elsa follows the tunnel for a long time until it ends at another tunnel cutting the other way. The ceiling in the crossing tunnel is much lower.

Left or right? Elsa follows the strongest source of magic, going left. This tunnel slopes down, deeper into the mountain. When she crosses into a large chamber, some scratching and growling have her ducking behind a large rock. She lets her magic light dissipate.

From what she can see, the chamber is pretty large. Light can be seen. She can't make out the source as the chamber is also full of large rocks like hers, creating a maze of sorts. Looking closer, she can almost see the light through the rock. They are more like crystals. Elsa creeps through the crystal garden, closer to the light.

She almost stumbles into a clearing in the crystal. Multiple giant creatures are sleeping there and she manages to hide where she can peek out and not be seen.

She realizes the mounds of creatures in the clearing are dragons. Some are taking turns exhaling fire as they snore, which adds to the light but isn't the main source. Excitement rushes through Elsa. She sits, dropping the bag she'd brought off her back and digging through it. She pulls out a book. Guilt and memory sluice through Elsa as she begins to compare the beasts before her to the entries in the book.

There are three different kinds amongst the sleeping beasts.

She can make out a Monstrous Nightmare, its horns a dead giveaway.

Multiple Gronckle are laying on their sides, their tungs hanging out.

There looks to be a mated pair of Deadly Nadder curled together in a heap, their thorns interlocking delicately.

They are different from the book, however. These are shades of blue and purple, not red or brown. The Nadders are white. Maybe it's a regional thing? She doesn't know. Her excitement flares again as she realizes these magical creatures have been here the whole time. Long before she was even born she'd wager. Taking out a quill and ink well she'd brought, she makes small notations in the index of dragons about the variations. Elsa is very careful to only use a small fraction of the open space. If she knows the Viking the way she thinks she does, he will be excited to have the new information.

After stowing everything away, she sneaks her way through the cavern. Now she needs to find a dragon that will take her to Berk.

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Toothless is looking at his Human's back. Many thoughts that are new to him cross his mind. Recently, he had learned that his Human is called Hiccup. What's new for him is understanding what a "hiccup" is. He had plenty of those when he ate fish too quickly. The Night Fury honestly thought the human called all Draconian's "Toothless". Now he realizes that is the name given to him by the human. Such a silly name. Of course, he has teeth. He decided to adopt the name once he'd understood. It couldn't hurt and it is better than silent death like the other Draconians call him.