Hello! I hope you like my story - this is definitely Hiccup/Elsa, rated T for Teen for some adult references, but honestly this is going to be tamer than most of what you'd see on broadcast TV these days. A few notes before we begin:

This takes place after Frozen II, during the 1840s, and How to Train Your Dragon took place during the 1st century, or AD 1 to 100. That means that Hiccup (Hiksti is Old Norse word for Hiccup and that's the name I'll use in this story) is very, very old.

Trigger warning: references to death, suicide attempts

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Elsa's cheeks were still glowing with happiness when she made her way up the Ahtohallan. Charades was fun, as it usually was, and Anna was settling in very nicely to her role as Queen of Arendelle. She and Kristoff were to be married in six months time, and preparations were already underway. Olaf was thrilled to be the ring-bearer, and they'd all been giggling over plans for Kristoff to ride to the wedding on Sven, who would be appropriately washed and decked out with the finest harness gold could buy.

Elsa debated internally whether she should explain to Anna about the wedding night. She'd learned about the facts of life when she'd started her moon cycle, and her mother had sat her down to explain. That had been perhaps four years before their parents had set sail on their last, fatal trip. But Anna… Elsa didn't know if Anna had had the same talk. And knowing her little sister, she may have been too embarrassed to listen intently and ask the right questions, at the time.

She made her way into the glacier slowly, taking her time while she imagined how awkward that conversation was going to be, and wondering if she'd have to find someone to explain to Kristoff what was expected of him. Being raised by trolls certainly raised a giant question-mark over that issue. How were troll-babies even made, any way?

Elsa's ruminations stopped cold when the realization that she was not alone slammed into her. She stopped where she was, just before the ice-steps leading down to the Reflection Room, as she'd taken to calling it.

A man stood there. About six feet tall, with lean muscles and with an artificial left leg. He had shaggy brown hair, and when he slowly turned to face her, she saw wide, intelligent green eyes and an open face that just screamed trustworthiness, with a short, well-kept beard and mustache. Freckles were scattered over his otherwise pale skin, and his expression was very calm and very serious. His hands were empty and he slowly spread his fingers wide, showing her his vacant palms.

"Who are you?" Elsa asked. Automatically her feet had slid into the 12-and-5 position, and her hands, too, were open, palms out. But power gathered beneath her skin, cold and joyful, ready to do her bidding.

"I mean you no harm," said the man. "My name is Hiksti," he said. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"You shouldn't be here," she said coldly. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears and this was wrong that someone else was in here, this was not allowed, how dare he?!

"My apologies," he said. "I thought maybe you were in there. But I gotta confess, this…" he gestured to the steps behind him, which were more like pillars of ice set at leaping distance the cross a gaping chasm. "... this kind of presented a challenge. I was trying to figure out the best way to cross."

She realized now that he had come prepared, a pack and lots of rope and ice-climbing supplies laying next to him in a tidy pile.

"It's not meant for just anyone to cross," Elsa said.

"I'm not just anyone," Hiksti told her calmly.

They stared at each other for a good solid minute before Elsa slowly relaxed her stance. The magic she kept close, ready to protect herself if he made any sudden moves. "Why are you here?"

"I was looking for you," he said. "Because I think… you can help me."

"Let's go out," she said, gesturing to the tunnel she'd just come from. "We can talk in the sunlight." She was desperate to have him leave.

"Alright," he agreed. Then he turned slowly and started packing up his things again. She waited patiently until he had everything on his back, and then she waved him past her. He smiled just a little bit and nodded, then preceded her back out.

Once they were in the sunshine, Hiksti made straight for a large boulder and set down his things, then sat next to them with a sigh. "Do you mind?" he asked, holding up his artificial leg.

Elsa heaved a silent sigh of relief once he was out of the glacier and raised an eyebrow. "No?" she said.

He took off his artificial leg and set it next to him, then started to massage the stump. He still had his own knee, she noted, and the metal foot of his prosthesis was made for walking on ice, with sharp, short metal spikes lining the bottom. "I've been on it all day," he explained. "It gets sore, sometimes." The Snow Queen just stared at him. He ignored that and finished his massage, then slid the leg back on, tightening straps and making adjustments until it was snug. "Most people are curious," he said. "About how I lost it."

She was curious. "How did you lose it?" she asked cautiously.

"A dragon," he said. Those intelligent green eyes shot up to her face as he said it, to judge her reaction.

"There's no such thing as dragons," she told him, a smile tugging at her mouth.

"No, not any more," he agreed. His voice was sad, and he sounded so… old. "Believe me, I've looked."

Elsa blinked, suddenly wondering just how old this Hiksti was. He didn't look much older than her. There was no grey in his hair, which in the light of the sun had a slight reddish tinge to the brown, and there were only faint crow's feet around his eyes. He had calluses on his hands that bespoke of hard work and went with the sword at his side. "Why were you looking for me?" she asked. "How did you find this place?"

"A lullabye," Hiksti told her. "A very old song… I realized it was a prophecy, you know, about you. For you. And after I heard that the Snow Queen of Arendelle abdicated her throne to go live in the North with savages - the story is spreading like wildfire, you know - it all clicked into place. I got here as fast as I could."

Else knew exactly what song he meant. "So… why are you looking for me?"

"Because I need your help," he told her. "I need you to break a curse that was laid on me by a trickster god."

"What kind of curse?" she asked, intrigued despite herself.

"A curse of immortality," he said quietly, and stood up. He stepped toward her, slowly, still showing with every line of his body that he meant her no harm. "I want... to die," he told her. "Will you help me?"