Icebound

❄ twenty four

❄

Hiccup.

There he was. Relaxing in the bath tub filled with the warmest water available was the one and only Rorke.

Elsa's blood boils at the sickening sight of him. Hiccup on the other hand was smiling, due to the fact that Rorke was alone and in a very vulnerable position.

His eyes were half-open as he exhales deeply, enjoying the very last moment of his life.

Elsa was about to emerge from the dark corner when Hiccup stops her for the second time. "Look at the floor." He whispers timidly.

Elsa shot her gaze to the marble tiled floor, wincing in confusion when she sees it displaying dark sparks, looking like a live eel's skin when it electrifies on its preys.

"Black magic?" Elsa gasps under her breath, turning to Hiccup with a face full of questions. "Don't tell me... Rorke has a witch?"

As if an answer, the doors of the grand master's bathroom bursts open. A tall beautiful woman wearing a black stunning gown who looks to be in her late thirties comes forward.

Her hair was a messy jet balck curl and her skin was as white as snow, whilst her eyes were greener than an emerald gem.

"Get up, Rorke. The snow queen is here, I can feel it!" The witch seethed, and with one flick of a finger, the sparks in the floor disperses into dusts, deactivating the spell.

Rorke stands up, revealing himself only in his thin underwear. Elsa looks away in disgust as the man stands up from the tub and grabs a towel, a couple meters away from where they were hiding.

The witch was on full alert. Her eyes couldn't stop travelling around the room. And then she shouted, "she's here- in the same room with us!" forcing the general to jump and shout back, "don't you dare shout at me, you old hag!"

"Hmph!" She groans childishly. As she begins to wander around the room, eyes becoming narrow whenever she looks at the dark corners, both Elsa and Hiccup forced themselves not to heave out a big loud breath.

Rorke has put on a robe on himself, and after so he walks out the room unannounced. Luckily the crazy witch followed after a mere minute.

Elsa finally lets out the breath she was holding, and so does Hiccup. "That was close." Says Hiccup.

"That witch looks easy. You handle her while I handle Rorke." Elsa tells him bravely.

"No, that's too risky. You're not gonna face him alone, not without me." He protests softly.

"I can and I will!" She barks.

Hiccup was about to say something when the doors open once again, forcing the two to run back to where they were hiding.

The witch walks toward the towel rack and pulls out another robe. Must be for Rorke, Hiccup thought.

This time Elsa successfully emerged out of the dark. "Hey!"

"Shoot, shoot, shoot!" Hiccup mutters in panic.

The snow queen proudly walks toward the shocked witch. The witch narrows her eyes and smirks mischievously.

"Well, hello there, Your Majesty." she says scornfully with a mock bow. "It's about time you showed up."

Hiccup, having no other option, comes out as well, causing the witch's smirk to grow bigger. "Ooh, I see you finally found your king. And he's the infamous dragonrider from Berk, Hiccup. Horrendous. Haddock?" The woman laughs in vain.

Without a second, a thunder of ice flashes before Hiccup's eyes. Hiccup backs away in fright when he sees the laughing witch frozen into an ice sculpture. 

"You couldn't wait until we knew her name?" Hiccup scoffs, turning to Elsa who's anger was growing into rage.

"Let's... go find the bastard before I lose control." She almost said in a growl.

Her demons were returning, he knew, though he wasn't sure why.

❄

Elsa.

Kill Rorke. Kill everyone around you. Let go.

These voices... I can't!

"Elsa?" Elsa felt everything warping back to reality when Hiccup shakes her shoulder. She jumped and gasped, and a small area of ice spread from where she stands. "Are you alright?"

Needless to say, they were still in hiding in corners for Rorke was hard to track down and have him alone in a room.

The general just wouldn't sit still because he was announcing to every one of his man to stay alert for the snow queen has arrived, and was in hiding.

"Take her to me, alive or dead!" Rorke had roared from the grand hall, causing the men to cheer in wild excitement.

Elsa's anxiety rose, but her scowl hardens.

"Elsa... we gotta fall back." Hiccup almost didn't want to say. He knew what her response would be.

But it turned out different this time. "Alright, maybe tomorrow?" The queen frowns.

Though Hiccup was glad she wasn't resisting him now, because if she was, she'd bring danger to either herself or him or the both of them. And Hiccup doesn't want that, her getting hurt or forever gone.

As the two set course back to the underground dungeon where Toothless awaits, the cheers of gambling mercenaries begsn to fade out.

All of a sudden, as they were climbing down the only stairs to the dungeon, Elsa felt dizzy and fatigue, causing herself to lose balance on her footing. Hiccup was able to catch her in time gladly.

"Elsa! Are you alright?" Hiccup asks, for the second time in the same hour, finding it difficult to lay her down on his lap because she was shockingly heavier than before.

The small hallway's temperature drops, and Hiccup brushed this off with the assumptions it was because of the hole from the dungeon, though from the back of his mind, a thought was telling him it was Elsa's doing.

"I-I feel so sick... and tired," Elsa responds with a ghast hoarse voice. Soon she begins to cough.

Hiccup attempts to lift her up, grunting at how heavy she was. Eventually he failed and put her back down. "What happened to you?" He asked, almost sounding stupid.

Elsa didn't had the strength to gawk nor laugh at him. "The witch, this is her doing!" She says, raspily, sounding thrice her age. "We gotta... get out of here."

Hiccup strongly agrees and nods, whistling a signal. Toothless crawls forward after a second.

❄