Omphalos (Hiccelsa)

Chapter 19

The days moved almost too swiftly for Hiccup and Elsa after that. Ophelia was only thrilled to be 'adopted' by Elsa and Hiccup, and Elsa commented with a chuckle that whichever place she ended up, she'd be leading them one day. It was an odd concept, and a little scary if Ophelia thought it through what it meant and all, but she was so young and care-free that things of the thought simply couldn't be bothered with. Knowing that she wasn't just related to the town's future 'Queen' but now the future-future queen herself did make some of the children that had been giving her problems back off, and made others want to hang out with her. Ophelia was quite wise about her sudden popularity, choosing to stick with her friends that had been her friends since the first day not those 'weird ones that think I'm better now than I was before. I was always better though!" She told Hiccup when he asked causally about it.

There were a few more soft kisses between Hiccup and Elsa, and Hiccup was glad to see she was warming up to him, bit by bit. The addition of Ophelia as now a permeate member meant that he had to tear down part of the house to build another room for Ophelia (he didn't expect her to share with a newborn, nor did he want her to take any of the rooms he'd planned for a large family he may or may not have) but it wasn't all too difficult. By a week until the wedding, it looked and felt like a house.

People had already moved in their furniture as a pre-wedding gift, so that when he and Elsa entered on their first night, there wouldn't be any spaces or things missing from a house that she deserved to be perfect to her. There were rooms that were ready for her womanly improvement, of course. He'd left some of the smaller bedrooms for children unfurnished, unable to predict how or when they'd need those, or what they would together decorate them as such.

Hiccup spent nearly all his time perfecting the house. Now it was just his own touches. A couple days ago, he'd drawn a sketch of Ophelia and Elsa dancing around with Mercedes and Hubert in the meadow, and he'd found some leaves and berries that the women dyed their fabrics with.

Elsa had been surprised upon seeing the range of yarn colors that could be died, she said that at her village these types of commodes would make someone very rich, as hand-made was going out of style in favor of making a business. Even so, he figured that if people changed the color of yarn, Hiccup could surly use them to change color on the page. Elsa had seen him practicing.

"Painting." She giggled, "I forgot you've just only created a pen and journal." The leap between her world and his own was so vast, that sometimes he forgot. She seemed to as well. Now he was practicing his 'artistic' skills, as Elsa called them, perfecting the painting that he had transferred to the back of a skin. It was a large scale project, but if he succeeded, it would be the perfect thing to hang in their house. Something really personal, something he was sure would mean something to Elsa. She was…sentimental like that.

He needed to finish it today, exactly five days before the wedding, even though it seemed he still had all the time in the world. In fact, he did not. Tomorrow his mother and himself had carefully carved out time for him and Elsa to travel to the place where his father died and the magical ice cavern still existed, because Hiccup couldn't let go of a hunch. Regardless of the reason he was really looking forward to spending some time alone with her, apart from the stress of the village or constant reminder that everyone gave them at every moment of the day of their impending marriage.

He was surprised Elsa was still here, the way that everyone was teasing her and bringing it up!

Elsa knew only that they would be gone; he didn't want to give too much away until he saw if his hunch was right. For this, the less Elsa knew about this place they were heading to, the better.

He figured that it took three days to get there and back, and perhaps they should have at least a day there to explore and also to get a moment of freedom, and also it was always save to measure in extra time, just in case.