hiii kris! i am a long time fan and your fanfiction is probably the only fanfiction I still follow to this day because your right is just TEWWW GOOD. i wondered if you have ever envisaged what Astrid/Elsa meeting for the first time would be like? either modern AU or a crossover within their universes? i recently watched HTTYD 2 and noticed a lot of parallels and also a lot of differences between them - but ultimately thought - what would they even think of each other? how would they interact?
HI thank you so much. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🙏 ilu 💕💕💕💕 thank you so much for this super sweet ask and your SUPER SWEET WORDS.
also, GAH, i love this idea. i had definitely considered their potential interactions in the context of rotbtfd settings (and i briefly briefly played around with a modern/magical-realism/mermaid!au take on this in frosted sea glass, but as those who have read the story already know, elsa has a very complicated dynamic with the others, astrid included). but now that you've brought up this idea, with a specific focus on the two of them in particular...? how might a friendship begin? an alliance? i am intrigued, i am intrigued, thank you for this. 💕
I DID NOT MEAN TO WRITE ANOTHER FICLET/ONE-SHOT AHHHHHHHHHH
also, FULL DISCLOSURE, to be absolutely honest, if you’d asked me this question 4 days ago, i would have had a completely different vision/response. (maybe i’ll still write this other version one day???) however... 3 days ago, i reblogged a fanart of elsa with her own ice dragon, and it’s been living RENT FREEEE in my head ever since, so, therefore, my reply to this ask, in this moment, is HEAVILY INFLUENCED and very much inspired by this gorgeous fanart on twitter/X from @Kiddo_hah (which i found from a re-post shared by @humongoustreemoon). i, too, have reposted the fanart inside this ask for dramatic effect™ but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be sure to GO TO THE twitter/x POST (linked again at the bottom of the ficlet too) and like, reply, and share this glorious creation, especially since i don’t have a twitter myself, thank you thank you 💕💕💕💕
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only honor ;
//
“I know, I know!” Astrid urged Stormfly forward, patting her neck and gritting through the unnatural chill, the sharp-like blades of wind on the skin not protected by her armor. “Almost there!”
Stormfly cried out—willing, trusting, but cold, and she ain’t happy about it—charging forward, her powerful wings slicing through the frigid air as they neared the towering ice fortress.
Her eyes catalogued potential weaknesses, entry points, barriers. It’s not like Valka’s old hideaway… The structure loomed on the horizon, its crisp spires piercing the bright white sky. It’s so… unnatural…
Unliked the Ice Beast’s jagged spikes, these constructions were symmetrical—crystalline.
Hiccup—where are you!
Astrid decided on their entry point and swooped down to surge through the crevasse —for better or worse.
The biting winds were replaced with a bone-deep chill, and with a screech, Stormfly instinctively slowed their pace to mitigate the burn. Astrid’s armor was not comfortable, but removing it was not an option. What is this place? The deeper they ventured into the glacier, the more Astrid’s breath crystallized in the air. Impossibly, the bright ice around them shifted and shimmered as they flew past—as though the ice itself was breathing.
As if it were alive.
“I know, I know,” Astrid soothed Stormfly, but they couldn’t leave, not yet. “Don’t you feel that?”
And she knew the Nadder could; there, at the center of the structure, a pulse of power—something ancient and formidable.
Another Ice King?
Stormfly slowed to nothing more than a glide as they slipped into what could only be the deep core. This far inside the glacier's cavernous heart, there was no wind, no sound; only eerie, imposing, suffocating silence… save for the occasional cracks and bending twangs of the glacier, in the haunting song that only ice sing.
“Hiccup!” Astrid called out, unable to bear it, but although her voice echoed through the ice tunnels, there was no response. Astrid carefully surveyed the walls, searching for breaks, for sign of weakness, but the ice was immovable, vast. Astrid swallowed down the fear, the instinct to stay quiet, lest the ice respond, and crack, and break.
Was this a mistake?
—no. You’re here now.
Face it.
But what she found within the heart of the glacier was neither the hulking form of an ice beast nor the hollow emptiness she had feared.
What she found—was a face.
At the core of the glacier was a throne of ice upon a frozen dais, delicate yet commanding... atop which sat a figure draped in flowing robes as pale as the snow. Her garments were soft and flowing and light—better suited for autumn or spring, rather than the deepest core of a glacier. Astrid knew, beyond all doubt, that this creature… was not human.
Not human, not human, how, how, not human—
Stormfly drew back, screeching a warning, as Astrid's keen, analyzing, calculating gaze took in the sight of the woman—a monster in disguise?—at the center of this impossible fortress. The woman—this being—stared back.
Despite the Nadder’s every instinct, Stormfly followed Astrid’s formidable will and took them to the icy floor before the impossible throne. Without letting her nerves overwhelm her, before she had the chance to doubt, Astrid dismounted in a single fluid motion, her axe at the ready; this deep into the glacier’s core, the metal was already showing signs of burgeoning frost.
Although she wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, exactly, she still hadn’t believed that the figure would rise from her throne. The woman lifted herself, her movements graceful yet commanding. Unnatural.
Astrid tightened her grip on her axe, ready to defend.
“You are lost,” said the woman. Her melodious, soft voice carried all throughout the cavern, against and through the reflective ice. All at once, the walls and floor seemed to shimmer with sunrise hues—glimmers of soft pinks, light blues, fresh lilacs.
Her hair, as white as the frost itself, cascaded down her shoulders, crowned with intricate icicles that sparkled in the dim light. But it was her eyes—cool, piercing blue, as light as the glacial ice itself, and glowing with the same unnatural power—
“I am seeking someone,” Astrid announced loudly, fiercely, with more bravado than she felt. Not human, not human, not human— “A man, riding a black dragon. His trail led me here.”
The woman’s surprise seemed genuine, but Astrid wasn’t ready to trust.
(Who are you!
What are you!)
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, with soft confusion, with (feigned?) sympathy. Astrid’s gloved hand, her cold and aching fingers, tightened over the wooden handle of her axe. The air was so cold, Astrid half-wondered if the metal blad might simply shatter at first contact. Stay calm, stay calm, not human, not human—
The woman's expression softened slightly, as if hearing Astrid’s very thoughts.
“You are safe from me, warrior,” she promised, and Astrid carefully eyed the sympathetic slant of her brows, the reassuring tilt of her smile. Astrid inhaled, unsure, and exhaled, determined. “But you should not be here.”
“I’ll be on my way,” the words left Astrid’s throat before she could piece the puzzle together, “as soon as you explain who… and what… you are.”
The woman’s smile disappeared; the soft line of her mouth flattened into something stiff, her gaze hardening, sharpening. The air seemed colder.
“You must leave,” said the woman, soft yet unmistakably a command. “Your friend is not here. Leave at once and forget this place. I shall not be here if you return.”
Thousands of questions begged to spill from Astrid’s lips, but the woman—the queen?—turned her back on her—Astrid’s hackles instinctively raised at the slight, at the offense, at the dismissal—and she glided across the perfect, unmarred ice back to her throne. Astrid stepped forward, compelled into action, as the woman lowered herself on the seat with an unnatural, eerie grace.
“Please!” Astrid’s face twisted with confusion, with indignation, with annoyance, and—although she’d never dare—perhaps a tiny bit of trepidation. “You may not have sensed him, but I know he’s here. We were—that is—our home is under attack.”
The woman—she must be a Queen, she must have been, she must be—looked on, her eyes widening, as Astrid dared move even closer, approaching the dais. Astrid hesitated, unsure of how much to reveal. But there was something in the Queen’s presence—a strange, cold purity of truth that persuaded her to speak.
Her instincts had never steered her wrong… so far.
“The carnage led us north, where we found destruction all through the frozen lands… There was a sign of struggle, a great battle—we thought… we thought the damage was borne from an Alpha—an Ice King,” she admitted.
The queen’s smile was faint but genuine—and a little bit sharp.
“I am no Alpha. And I am no King.”
Astrid was in no danger, but its prospect hovered in the air, tingling on her skin, threatening the possibility.
“Please,” Astrid insisted. “I’ll leave you be,” she declared, not knowing if it was a lie. “Tell me what you know of the battle that took place outside these walls—who you faced, and how—so that I can find him. I’ll never return.”
From the way the woman’s brow raised archly, it seemed both of them seemed to sense the mistruth in Astrid’s claim; the Queen’s chin raised, considering; her keen eyes, defiant. Sharp. Astute.
Damn. Only honesty, then. No trickery.
Only honor, and duty, and valor.
“I will tell you what I know,” said the ice Queen. “But you will not like what you hear.”
Astrid swallowed, brow furrowed, and nodded. Her armor was growing frost, and it was starting to sting.
“I am bound to the ice,” she declared, and her expression slipped into something cold, something aloof. “As I have been, for an age… I know nothing of your politics, your land disputes, and I no longer care for anything beyond these walls. But I can confirm that when unwanted visitors encroach upon that which is mine—I shall respond in kind.”
“So… it was you?”
Behind her, the air itself seemed to shimmer, and then crack—like a frozen lake underfoot.
Astrid’s breath hitched as she watched the very essence of the ice condense, swirling like a storm gathering strength.
From nothingness, a massive form began to materialize—
Astrid gasped escaped her, as Stormfly shrieked, as the unnatural surge of power took shape, coalescing into the distinct outline of a dragon.
Its form—its body?—a thing of haunting beauty, shimmering with unnatural, almost ethereal light as it slinked forward. The dragon's head was massive and menacing, its piercing eyes glowing with an intense, cold light.
Its mouth was filled with sharp, ice-like teeth, lined within a jaw no doubt capable of unleashing a blizzard with a single breath. The ice demon of a dragon let out a piercing, shrieking warning call—to Astrid, to Stormfly, who was furiously cowering and spitting at the stranger’s might, unable to summon flames in so deep a cold—but from its horrible, beautiful maw, the ice dragon spat frost like sparks.
Astrid breathed hard, trying to keep her heartbeat steady as it leered forward, curling itself protectively around the throne and the woman upon it, its mighty claws never once gauged the perfect ice beneath. The beast's wings expanded, curling about the dais, each membrane almost translucent, laced with veins of ice.
Astrid was highly aware of Stormfly’s extreme displeasure, of Stormfly’s fright and distrust, even with her confidence in Astrid’s steady presence.
Look, Stormfly, look, she willed silently to the Nadder behind her, as she stared at the ice dragon's scales—a deep, frigid blue, glistening like frozen crystals in the pale light, rolling from deep indigos to pale lavenders. Don’t you see? Maybe this is what we were looking for—maybe she’s…
The ice around her rippled with power and, Astrid realized, in that moment—
She was the ice.
The ice dragon—is her!
Astrid’s heart raced. Is this—is she—an Alpha, after all? (A new, unknown species? Is she the dragon, or is it a part of her? An extension of her? The power emanating from this Queen and her dragon was unlike anything she had ever encountered. Hiccup! Did you see?
Were you here?
Do you know!)
“What are you? Who are you?” Astrid demanded, breath shaky, awed and alarmed as the ice dragon coiled more fully around the Ice Queen, radiating calm menace—and a deep, deep core of protection. Stormfly growled lowly, still clicking her displeasure, but fell briefly subdued when the veil of danger lessened... despite the ice dragon's dark, eerie presence.
This is it! Astrid's mind whirled through the possibilities, the calculations. If they could convince her to join them—if Astrid could convince her that they should be allies—
The Queen’s gaze held hers, steady and calm, as she folded her hands delicately atop her lap, resting upon her knees.
“I was once known as the Snow Queen,” she intoned, her voice steeped in quiet, ancient power, now impossible to ignore. “But those days are lost to time… and you, Dragon Warrior, stand in my domain. If you wish to find your friend, you must listen to the counsel, and the warning, I shall grant you.”
Ignoring her better judgments, yet heeding her instincts—
Astrid did.
//
please go like/repost/comment on, etc. this gorgeous fanart on twitter/X from @Kiddo_hah (which i found from a re-post shared by @humongoustreemoon). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be sure to GO TO THE twitter/x POST and engage and spread the love, especially since i don’t have a twitter account myself, thank you thank youuuu~💕🙏🙏🙏🙏✨
push yourself to get up before the rest of the world - start with 7am, then 6am, then 5:30am. go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sun rise.
push yourself to fall asleep earlier - start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.
get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.
stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch everything.
buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.
buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.
strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear draw into the washing machine. put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash. make your bed in full.
organise your room. fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.
have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.
push yourself to go for a walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. realise you can learn from your dog.
message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce. suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself to follow through.
think long and hard about what interests you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette? find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally everything.
become the person you would ideally fall in love with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. stick your tongue out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week. walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.
lie in the sunshine. daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t a thing. open your eyes. take small steps to make it happen for you.
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