Hiccup's POV
I felt my body sway about. Perhaps it was the wine. I had too much wine.
I peeled my eyes open slowly. The view that greeted me explained the swaying movement; I was on the ship, particularly inside the cabin. It appeared that we were already on our way while I was still unconscious.
When I tried to get up, a ridiculously painful pound hit my head. Inevitably, I grunted in pain to more of them after the first one. I began to breathe heavily due to the phenomenon. With every single bit of energy there was, I positioned myself to sit down on the edge of the bed.
"God..." I rubbed my head. Out of the blue, a hand landed on my shoulder. I looked up; it was Elsa.
"Morning..." she smiled, doing the same thing I was; rubbing her temple. She sat down next to me.
"Hey. Morning," I replied.
"Tough night?" Elsa chuckled.
"Yeah, that's one way to put it—oof!" A stinging sensation materialized inside my head, cutting me midsentence.
"You okay?"
"Y-Yeah... I'm good..." I applied more and more rubs against my temple to really blood flow into my poor brain. At least, that's what I believed what rubbing your temple will do when you have a headache. But it was working! The pain slowly eased itself, as if there was a monster inside that needed some calming down.
"Well, hello there, drunk buddy—oof," Elsa did the same thing I did to cope with the same stinging sensation. "Mmh... did Anna get drunk, too?"
"Don't think so. We're already sailing our way to New Berk. If it's not her that carried us all the way to the dock, I don't know who else," I said. "Besides, I don't think she really dug the taste of the wine."
"But it was so good!" Elsa added.
"I uhh... will have to admit, it really was. Hopefully we didn't bring any. Did we?" I asked, looking around for any sign of wine stored in a compartment or container.
"I hope for the opposite," Elsa smiled cheekily.
"Elsa the fifth spirit of Northuldra, that is so un-spirit-like of you!" I sarcastically replied.
She proceeded to laugh about it while rubbing her temples even more. Seeing her behaving as so, I nudged her playfully.
"Don't make me put a lemon on your smile to wipe it away," I said, standing up. "I need some fresh air. So do you. Come on."
Slowly but surely, we made our way out of the cabin. Right away, we were greeted by the view of the ocean and the harsh breeze of the wind. The sky was open; a perfect weather for the journey. Right next to our ship, a distinct Viking boat was sailing. I saw the familiar figure of Mrs. Hoffman taking control of the steering of the boat while being helped by some men. It would make sense that she was one of very few people who made it out of whatever happened last night while still sober.
On the starboard side of the ship, Anna was there, just standing while enjoying the view. When she looked to her back, she noticed our presences.
"Oh hey! Good afternoon! You two are finally awake!" She gestured us to come to her.
"Mhm. Good afternoon. Were you, um, sober in the whole time?" I asked, leaning myself against the railing of the boat.
"I was. And so was your mother," she pointed to the poop deck and there my mother was, holding the steering wheel. Mother merely gave a wave of a hand, as she seemed to be preoccupied with the wheel and the Terrible Terror on her shoulder.
"Wait, Anna, did you just say afternoon?" Elsa asked, scratching her hair.
"Uh huh. You two have slept for so long, mind you. How are you two feeling?" Anna asked.
"Well, sober, I think," Elsa replied.
"I'm on my way," I added, shrugging.
"Do you want some milk? I heard it helps to ease the head," Anna suggested, concern appearing in her expression.
"I think it can wait, you go ahead have some," I gave Elsa a pat by the shoulder and headed to the poop deck to see my mother. She noticed my presence and stopped giving her affection to the Terrible Terror.
"Hey there," she greeted with a smile.
"Hi."
"Sober?"
"I guess. Were you, um, by any chance, also—"
"Oh no. I was not. It takes more than that for me to get drunk. Luckily, I only got drunk once throughout my life, and I heard it was quite the hell. Stoick was there to calm me down, so, props to him," she scoffed.
"Really? You never told me that story," I told her, looking ahead to the horizon of sea.
"And I have a reason why I never did. Not all stories are meant to be shared, you know," she let go of the wheel and locked it with a pull of lever next to it.
"Uh huh," I scoffed.
She sat on the wooden railing in front of the wheel, facing me. "I can't believe how I found you last night when we were about to depart."
Within an instance, worry took over me. "Oh no. What happened?"
"Well, what did you remember from last night?" Mother chuckled.
"Hmm... the dinner? I had multiple refills, pretty sure I was in another realm after that," I crossed my arms, sitting on the railing next to her.
"Ahh... I think I have a change of mind. I won't tell you."
"Mom!" I gave her a push by the arm. She reacted by fixing her balance and laughing. "Tell me!"
"But I'm proud, though..."
"Proud of what?"
"You slept with Anna. But who knows? Maybe you two have been doing it for quite a while? So it's no big deal," she looked ahead with a smile.
I... slept with Anna? Oh no, did we?
"Did we... um..." I made motions with my hand as I tried my best in finding the words that still could describe what I wanted to convey but not as blatantly as possible. "Um... were we..."
"You two still had your clothes on, in case you were wondering. So, no. I don't think you two had a go," she explained. Right away, the heavy feeling inside my chest lifted off.
"Good..."
"Good? I kind of wish for the opposite, to be honest," mother scratched all over my hair in a playful manner.
"Mommm!" I pulled myself off of her grasp, giving her a 'what in the name of Odin' look. Despite being judged, she still smiled along. Perhaps she really meant it, she wanted her son to tie the knot with the Queen of Arendelle.
"He he... By the by, I've heard of the story. From the Vikings who have been there, and from herself," she replied.
"Anna told you about it?!" I asked in disbelief.
She raised her hands in denial. "Oh no, I'm talking about something else. The story of the... 'Great Thaw', I think that's the name for it. You must have been told I assume?"
Realizing that I had the wrong idea of the story she meant, I relaxed my face. It was how Anna saved her sister from a prince who wanted the throne of the kingdom. "Oh. Yeah, she has. What did she tell you?"
"Oh everything. Anna just told me this morning. How she traveled through the snow to get to her sister. How she loved her so much," she looked to her back to see the sisters bonding together. "She's a good sister. She also told me her recent adventure to the Enchanted Forest, how she, once again, saved her sister. And the kingdom, too, essentially."
"Wow, she must've told you a lot," I said.
"Mhm. The queen has a big heart. And it's you, the one who holds it dearly," she placed a hand gently on my chest, particularly the spot where my heart resided.
I bit my lip. "Hfft... did she tell you about that as well?"
"No need to keep it as a secret, Hiccup. Nobody will mind," she replied.
I stared at the floor for a moment, sighing up afterwards as a sign of defeat. "And she holds mine."
"I can see that," she tried to catch my vision with her own, smiling. I returned the smile with the same thing.
"She was pretty open about it as well, anyway," mother added.
"About how... she..." I dragged my sentence, again, not wanting to express it blatantly.
"Feels to you," she completed.
"Heh. Were you interrogating her or something?"
"Of course not. We just arrived at that topic while prepping everything for the journey. There were only the five of us, you know? To handle two boats in the same time?" She showed the number of fingers of her hand to emphasize just how little that number was. "There were only Anna, Mrs. Hoffman, Mr. Hoffman, Eret, and me! Well, if you count the water horse, there would be six of us. Very clever of him to move the water beneath us, I must say."
"Yeah, that was a part of our plan to speed our travel time up. Where are the others?" I asked.
"Still sleeping in the lower deck. Luckily, we already had our supplies stored before we had to 'store' you drunken men and women," mother intended full sarcasm in her reply.
I chuckled sheepishly. "Well, we probably shouldn't have partied so hard last night..."
Mother gave my shoulder a firm grip. "You arriving back to us was a miracle, Hiccup. Of course, it was worth celebrating."
I stared at her eyes before turning away with a sigh. "If you put it that way."
"After what you've been through, after what Anna has been through..." She added, which made me raise a brow.
"What Anna has been through?" I questioned.
She turned to me, giving me a sharp look. "You attempted to commit suicide, did you not?"
Busted.
I looked to the floor, not giving her a reply while biting my bottom lip. She didn't say anything too for a moment.
"It's in the past," she said. She scooched closer to me and pulled me with an arm into a hug. "I love you, son."
I was expecting a scold or something close, but this was better overall. I did the same to her, and in the process, on the bottom of my vision, I saw Anna and Elsa watching us from portside. The two merely waved their hands with a smile. I slightly waved my hand in return.
"I love you too, mom."
We let go of each other. "Um, you have set the course?" I asked.
"I have. We just keep heading west, right?" She pulled a map from her pocket and undid it. Her finger pointed to the center of the map where Old Berk was. It traced all the way to west and stopped on a giant island, New Berk.
"Correct," I responded.
"Heh. Your mother is still sharp when it comes to sailing, son. Even after flying on the back of a Stormcutter for more than twenty years," she scoffed. "Another reason why your father fell for me."
"Yeah yeah..."
She looked to her back to spot Elsa being alone by herself, with what seemed to be a glass of milk in her hand. "Why don't you accompany her?" Mother nudged me.
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna need my milk for now," I responded. I nudged her back before I made my way to Elsa, who was casually sipping her drink while enjoying the view. Before I could even call her, Nokk breached the surface of the water, galloping alongside the boat. Elsa gave her pats by the neck.
"Hey there buddy..." she softly spoke. The horse neighed in response. He turned to me, realizing my presence while still galloping. Elsa realized the same thing right away.
"Hey, does the milk work?" I asked, pointing at her glass.
She nodded vigorously. "Yeah! It does! I'm already much better now," she said as she sipped more of her milk.
"Alright, I'll go get some."
I headed into the cabin and saw Anna pouring just what I wanted into a glass. Once I shut the door, that gained her attention. "Hey."
"Hey, is that for me?"
"Yes. I was just about to give it to you so you could enjoy your talk with your mother even more," she handed me the glass. I took a gulp and noticed its coldness.
"Mm! It's cold! How?"
"Elsa's magic? It does come in..." she motioned her hands as if she was sending blast of ice with them, "Handy, you know what I'm saying?"
I gave her a judging look while sipping my drink. "You did not."
"Oh yes, I did, kind sir," she smiled proudly.
"You very much did," I sat down on the bed to finish the drink. It didn't take long for me to really feel the effect kicking in. My head began to feel gradually lighter from its previously heavier feeling. My vision was clearing up. Overall, my body was regaining itself after the excess amount of wine I had just had in the night before.
Anna sat down with me. "You good?"
"More than good. How did you know milk was good in this?" I asked.
"Kai told me. Let's say, he used the same thing to me when I had, um," she scratched her head, "Too much wine at this party."
"Ahh, so you have experienced it."
"I have, yeah. But I would not like to share what happened. At least, not yet," she shrugged.
"I'll be looking forward to it, then," I responded.
We remained silent for a moment. At one point, Anna rested her chin on my shoulder, her right arm entangled with my left one. She let out one big sigh. Judging from the frown, I suspected that she had something in her mind.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Nothing. It's just... Valka. She is a really good woman, I can tell," she responded.
"Okay. And?" I sipped my milk.
"After talking to her for... well, she has been the only one around to talk to since dawn, it kinda made me, um, miss my own mother. And father, too, I suppose."
I finished my milk and put it away. I cupped her cheek, pulling her closer. "Is that so?"
"Yeah..." She said under her breath. "I can see mother in her."
I remained silent. My hand shoved her arm to sooth her.
"Well, aside the melancholy bits, I'm glad that I've met her," She pulled away from me, connecting our eyes together while smiling endearingly.
"I'm glad that she made it out. I mean, out of many Berkians... she was the one out of a few..." I chuckled.
"I know right?"
"You two should get to know her more. But don't ask her for cooking tips, she won't have a clue," I joked. The queen laughed about it.
"Right... So, with this speed, how long until we reach New Berk?" She asked.
"Hmm... three days? Or even two?" I explained. I stood up to reach a compartment just below my bed. From there, I grabbed my scroll of map and opened it.
"We are here," I pointed a spot with a finger near Old Berk. "Once the island is within an eyesight," I tapped a finger on New Berk on the map, "We must wait until night or set a speed that will make us arrive there by night. Then we circle the island from a distance, reach the north side, enter the giant waterfall, and set a base there."
"What makes you so sure that the cave behind the waterfall is safe for all of us?" Anna asked.
I chuckled, because I was about to tell her a fact that would blow her mind. "You see, New Berk is... a giant island that stood tall. To reach the top, we will need to ride a dragon, or, apparently, the Therondian way, shoot a harpoon to the top that acts as a ladder to get themselves up. Now, inside this island,"
"Inside?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, inside, there is a labyrinth. The island is basically one gigantic labyrinth! It took us months to really map the labyrinth thoroughly. Since Therondia killed every Berkian there was, I doubt that they have the slightest knowledge about this tailless maze," I explained.
It took her a moment to really picture what I really meant. "Like... there's a giant maze underground?"
"Yeah! And we know the path that connects us from the waterfall cave to the top," I smiled proudly. "We will use this as our own advantage."
She smiled, almost like in relief. "Well, I don't think there's any better news to hear for this occasion."
"Hmm, the news of you honing your skills in swordsmanship would be nice to hear, too," I mockingly suggested. Right away, she showed an expression of a challenged person. She stood up and went to her compartment. Her hand dug into it and pulled out her inferno blade, taunting me with it afterwards.
"Did I tell you that your mother also trained me?" She smirked. "Rise, Sir Haddock," she challenged.
"What, in here? In the cabin?" I asked.
"There's enough room," she replied, taunting more with the blade. Acknowledging it, I dug my hands into my compartment and pulled out my two hatchets that I had acquired from the weaponry back in Old Berk. I set myself in a ready stance, eyes locked onto the challenger in the room.
We moved in circle, waiting for each other a move. Almost simultaneously, we jumped into each other.
----
CLANG
"Go Anna! Yeah!" Astrid cheered.
"Boo Hiccy! You're totally going down!" Ruffnut 'supported'.
"Let's go Anna!" Elsa shouted.
Here we are, two days later in the journey to New Berk. Anna and I were in a duel. She was on a streak of duels with many people including her sister, my mother, Ruffnut, Eret, and Astrid. Of course, she didn't win all of them, but defeating Astrid who wielded a giant axe and Ruffnut who wielded a mace certainly boosted the queen's confidence.
It was dark, so we had to set a torch by the mast to gain some lighting on the boat. Everyone was circling us while either sitting down or standing up, watching us with full hopes. Well, I believed some were. Even the ones on the other ship was sailing with us so closely to spectate the duel.
Anna was now using a shield she brought from her land. She covered half of her face with the shield, so I could only spot her eyes. Her eyes had never looked so fierce than before. The queen had really brought back her warrior spirit, as if it was asleep in the whole time. We were only entering the first five minutes of the match, and she already had pinned me four times, and I only had done twice. I was lacking two scores in this best of five match.
Was I willing to lose for my own girlfriend?
Absolutely not.
Anna began to taunt me again by banging her blade against her own shield. This and her eyes were playing a psychological game, trying to affect me in any way possible.
After my previous failed attempt in pinning her down, we began to move in circle again with the mast between us. With her not making a single move, I leaped forward my hatchets. I swung my left hatchet to her from the side, which she blocked with her shield. My momentum made her recoil a little, giving me an opening to her exposed back. When I swung my right hatchet to her back, Anna swung her shield to the direction of it. I never saw it coming. After a loud CLANG, I was sent backwards a few steps. I nearly lost grip of my weapons.
"OOOH!"
"Whoa!"
The parry was indeed worth the 'ooh' and 'ahh'. I looked up to regain my composure, but only to have her charging at me with her blade. She swung the blade from above, so I jumped backward to avoid it. By the time I landed, she gave me no time to take a breather by charging to me with her shield. This was, unfortunately, unavoidable. Her hit once again sent me backward, making my back contact with the railing of the boat hard.
"Agh!"
The theme of the fight was no time to breathe. So, inevitably, Anna lunged to me again, this time she used the pointy bit of her blade, trying to impale me. I noticed this at the very last second, so I rolled away to avoid it, which I did, barely.
Having successfully yet barely avoided the charge, I turned around to see my opponent. Her current state was quite the shocking one; she had her blade stuck against the railing of the boat! While still struggling to pull her weapon out, I took my chance and pulled her by strangling her with an arm, the other placing the edge of my hatchet on her neck.
Seeing that she was cornered in the current situation, Anna dropped her shield in surrender. I let go of her after that.
"Point for Hiccup! Three to four!" Eret exclaimed.
"That was a lucky point, no need for a point for me for that," I said.
"No!" She pulled her blade with both arms out. Later, she picked up her shield again and readied herself. "Lucky or not, I slipped on my own back there. Of course you get a point for that," she bashed her blade against the sword. "Come on!"
"YOU GO GIRL!" Astrid exclaimed.
"YEAH ANNA!" Elsa cheered.
I could tell that she just won the hearts of the audience with that simple gesture. Seeing that the audience was on her side really made me more determined in not losing. This was now about pride, not just a normal best of five match.
"Very well," I spoke.
For the countless time, we moved in circle again, eyes connected onto one another. This time, I waited for her to move. With a loud stomp, Anna charged towards me, swinging her blade from the side. I ducked, evading it. Since Anna still had some momentum because of her charge, I used the window to land a swing to her from below. But it merely contacted her shield with a loud BANG. She tried her best not to recoil from the force. She returned the attack by giving my peg leg a sweep. I lost my footing, landing my butt on the deck. I was in a vulnerable position, so I quickly rolled away to avoid the incoming swing of her blade.
After creating a safe gap, I stood back on my feet. Anna swung her blade to me again from above, but only to have it land on the floor instead. Almost like a miracle for me, the tip of the blade apparently got stuck again. When she was trying to pull it out, I used my prosthetic to keep the blade planted on the floor. Anna looked up to me, her teeth gritting. She attempted to bash me with the shield, but I countered by swinging both of my hatchets to its direction. Since my force was far bigger, she lost grip of her shield, dropping it onto the ground. I placed the blade of my hatchet against her neck once again.
"Do you want a point for that, Hiccup?" Eret asked.
"Of course, I want it!" I replied, creating a gap between me and my opponent.
"All right! Four to four! Decisive round, begin!" Eret announced. Everyone clapped their hands in excitement, shouting more 'wohooo' and 'come on!'
Anna pulled out the inferno blade again from the floor and put on her shield. Hopefully for the last time, we moved in circle again, still circling the same mast.
This time, I made the first move. Seeing a straight clear path that would lead me to my opponent, I leaped forward, swinging my hatchets from the right side. Both impacted against the shield hard. From the opposite side, I hit her shield with my weapons, only to have them loudly contacted against each other. I was trying to break her for the sake of an opening with an aggressive style, and it worked! On my third swing, Anna was sent spinning around, leaving her back exposed once again. As I was about to land my hatchet on it, she quickly turned around and parried my swing with her blade. The counter stunned me, making me vulnerable to her attack. She took the window by bashing her shield against me. The hard contact sent me a few steps backward.
Her shield hit me by the face, particularly my jaw, so I had to fix it for a moment. Suddenly, Anna had a change of expression into a worried one.
"Your lips! ..."
"What's that—" I cut myself after I tasted blood in my mouth.
"Oh. It's all right! Do not feel for your opponent!" I told her. "I'm still your opponent! Remember that!"
Anna still looked unsure, though she was in a ready stance.
"Come on!" I clanged my hatchets together. "Scared much?" I taunted, trying to reawaken her warrior spirit. It did a little, signed by her frown, but it was enough. She lunged towards me, her blade swinging from the side. I aimed my hatchets for the blade, but I hardly anticipated her shield. I managed to blocked her swing, but she still managed to give me a good push with the shield.
Again, I was sent backward. Before I could even regain myself, Anna swung her blade to me and hit me by the hands. The heat from the flaming blade made me lose grip of my weapons.
"Ahh!" I hissed in pain.
"Oh no!" Anna said.
"Point for Anna! Anna wins!" Eret exclaimed. Followed after that were cheering and yelling for Anna. However, Anna was not so 'cheered' by them. Instead, she took my hands and examined the burn mark she had made after turning off the fire from the blade and dropping her weapons.
"Fuck... I-I'm sorry... I shouldn't have had the fire on for this occasion..." She said. "Let's get this patched up—"
"Guys! Land Ho!"
Everyone turned to the source of the exclamation, which happened to be Fishleg's, who was looking up ahead from his scope. Right away, the cheering for Anna's victory stopped. Everyone including me ran to the bow. Fishleg gave me his scope to take a closer look, and he was right. There was a land. It was New Berk. Its gigantic towering shape was so distinctive from other lands we've ever seen. This was it; my home was just up ahead. My rightful home.
"Thor bless my calculation. Land ho, indeed! Steer right hard, proceed to steer left gradually after that! We need to get to the north side of the island!" I announced. With that, everyone cleared off to make the boat steer right. I was about to undo some knots but Anna stopped me midtrack.
"Let's get you patched up first, Hiccup!" She said.
I chuckled. "It's just a burn mark, chill! The blade is not sharp, after all, remember?"
"How am I supposed to chill? Come on, Hiccup. You can't do things with an infecting burn mark on your hands, please."
Seeing the sternness, I sighed in defeat. She took me into the cabin and prepped the medicines needed for the treatment. I grudgingly took a look of my hands again and was taken aback to see blood flowing from a cut that I never knew was there. There was no hiding for it, so Anna noticed the cut right away when she returned with the patches.
"Oh no... I must've hit your hands with tip of the blade..."
She made me sit down on the bed while cleaning my hands with a piece of wet cloth. After cleaning off the blood, the applied a patch on each hand. She did quite the tidy work, I must say.
"There..." Anna spoke, merely staring at my hands for a few moments.
"I'm sorry..." She spoke softly.
"It's okay. I would've tried to find more openings, anyway. I was still your opponent, you know?" I assured. She remained staring at my hands, occasionally caressing them gently.
"I know... it's just, now your entire arms are... scarred."
She ran her fingers from my wrists to my hands to gesture at the scars she meant. I captured her hands, entrapping them in mine. "It's okay baby girl."
The Queen of Arendelle looked up to me, still with a sorry look. I leaned in and kissed her by the lips once, and by the forehead once, too. I pulled her into a hug afterwards.
"Just don't feel for your enemy next time. They will only have one ambition, either it's to kill you or to take you away so they can kill you later," I whispered on her ear.
"Yeah... noted," she whispered back.
I let go of her. "Come on, New Berk awaits."
She gave me a smile, which I was relieved to see. I took her hand and walked out of the cabin. On the far-left side, a shady but definite shadow of New Berk was there. Fishleg was examining the island constantly on portside from his scope.
"How are we looking, Fishleg?" I asked.
"I think we're already on the north side, what do you think Hiccup?" He gave me his binocular again. I examined the island through it, and I saw what was definitely the waterfall.
"Alright..." I looked up to the poop deck and Eret was there, manning the wheel. "Eret! Steer left. Go dead straight for the waterfall!"
"Aye chief!"
"Hiccup," Elsa called. "Do you need more speed? I can tell Nokk to make the approach faster."
"Sure thing. Everybody! Loosen all sails then, we don't need 'em. We will be running solemnly on Nokk," I replied. Elsa nodded to the command and went to starboard to do it. Everybody else headed to remove the sails, and so did the crew onboard the ship next to ours.
After commanding Nokk to pick up the speed, we immediately felt the change. We were heading to the waterfall fast. The island was a mere speck, but with our current speed, it was becoming larger as moments passed. Everybody kept their eyes on the very edge of the cliffs of the island, hoping for no one to spot us. The night was rather cloudy, so we had a tiny bit advantage to cover our approach by the weather.
It took us no more than five minutes to reach the island. So far, we saw nobody up on the cliffs, which was good news for us. By the time we were closing to the waterfall, Nokk slowed our speed down. I looked to Elsa and signaled her with a nod. Nodding back, she used her magic to create a gate of ice that cut an opening on the waterfall, allowing us to move past it safely.
Once inside the cave, it was pitch black. Some lit torches to gain some lighting inside the cave, but that still didn't do much as we still couldn't see much.
Out of nowhere, our ships beached themselves. Nokk resurfaced on the water, sharing a look with me. I nodded to the water horse and jumped off the ship. Everybody followed me carefully. I took my time to really map the entirety of the cave's interior. I was looking for a passage, an opening, that would lead me to the labyrinth of the island. It took some time, but after looking carefully and thoroughly, I found it.
"There it is..." I gestured to the opening that I was looking for to everyone behind me. There were 'stairs' we had carved a long time ago that had been covered in mosses. They would lead all of us to the top.
"You still remember the way, Hiccup?" Astrid asked.
"Uh huh. It's all in here," I pointed at my head. "Worry not."
"All right, let's make ourselves a nice base, people. We will wait until morning—"
Thud
I looked behind and saw men from the past. Therondians.
"VIKINGS!"
One man lunged toward me, swinging his sword from above. I evaded it just in time. "GRAB YOUR WEAPONS!" I exclaimed.
All of us ran away from the pack of Therondian soldiers. On our way, I looked behind to count their number. I saw at least a good eight.
Phew!
Something flew past my head, which I swore cut some bits of my hair. I looked behind and saw a man reloading a crossbow.
I hid behind a rock, watching the others getting back onto the boats to retrieve their weapons. All except for Elsa. She stood her ground, facing the incoming soldiers.
"Elsa! What are you doing?!"
Not batting an eye to me, Elsa stomped the ground and created a wall of ice to separate us from them.
"What is this magic?! She's a witch!" One man spoke.
I came out of my hiding to see the magic Elsa pulled. "Nice one, Els."
"Thank you—" BOOM!
Not even a moment was given, the ice wall was already shattered by an explosion. Out of the smoke of debris, the Therondians came out, charging toward us. Fortunately, my people had already got their weapons. Ruffnut passed me my hatches as he and the others ran to the direction of our opponents with battle cries.
Swords began to clash, shields began to bash, axes began to swing. Astrid and I were fighting this one large man who wielded a mace. With his reckless swings, we hardly found an opening to counter the Therondian's attacks. At one point, he kicked Astrid hard, making her back hit a rock hard. Seeing so, I threw one hatchet at the man. With Godlike reflex, he blocked the incoming hatchet with his weapon. I was only left with one hatchet, and he saw it as an opportunity as he approached me with a devil-like smile.
I walked backward to get away from him, but I slipped on my track. He began to build momentum by swinging his mace around, but shortly after that, ice materialized just under the man's steps. He slipped. I looked behind and saw Elsa doing the same to other Therondians, creating slippery ice under them. Astrid, who was regaining her composure, saw the chance and planted her axe on the man's unprotected back with a strong swing. The cracking of the man's spine confirmed his death.
"Good job! Let's help the others!"
With that, Astrid and I moved on to help the others defeating the Therondians. Having Elsa on our side really helped the process; she provided us openings with her magic. All of us managed to defeat every Therondian there was, and there was only one alive. We had him cornered against a rock. Seeing himself was cornered, the man dropped his weapons and raised his hands.
"I-I give up!"
"Was there anybody else following you guys?" I asked, pointing my hatchet to him.
"N-No! There were only us! I swear!"
His obedience gave me a hint that I could use him in the future. "Spare him. We can interrogate him to get information," I commanded to Eret, who was by my side. "Tie him nice and tightly to the mast of the ship. All right, everybody else, let's set a camp."
"Aye, chief," Eret nodded, approaching the Therondian.
With that, I checked on everyone as they progressed with my command. Everybody was here, only slightly bruised, nothing serious.
However, I was wrong.
"Anna?" I spoke to myself. I looked around on the scattered dead bodies of Therondians and found one impaled from below by the distinctive inferno blade that was not lit. I rushed my way to the body and flipped it to see a shocked Anna bathed in blood.
"Anna!"
I helped her sit up and checked for any scar. That quickly explained the blood; it was not hers. I looked to the dead man. He was impaled right on the heart, and from there, blood was still flowing.
I turned to her. "Hey... you're okay?"
She remained silent; eyes widely opened. I used my hands to wipe off the blood on her face, which didn't do much but it had to do.
"I-I just took his life..."
"Oh baby girl..." I pulled her into a hug.
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