A Saga Of Ice And Fire

Chapter Ten - Ice And Snow

It'd been over three weeks since the King had made the announcement at the dinner table that they all would be visiting his sister and her husband in the Kingdom of Corona next month. And in that time , Hiccup and Elsa had started their science lessons , taught by a very ancient looking man who told the children to address him as Mr.Aaberg.

Mr. Aaberg was by far the most curious looking teacher Hiccup had had so far .
The man was rather thin and peculiarly short, just barely taller than Hiccup himself and yet the man was no dwarf. He had a very fluffy white moustache and his head was very sparsely populated by hair so much so that it was barely visible over his shiny head unless you squinted to catch a glimpse of it. The man seemed to be find of wearing long cloaks as Hiccup had never seen him out of one so far . His crooked nose was bent slightly to one side and it definitely looked like someone had beaten it into that shape, though Hiccup knew better than to ask him about it. His voice did nothing to repel the fragility of the man overall, coming out in high pitched squeaks and grunts and nothing more. The walk and talk the man had just didn't seem normal . All in all, Mr.Aaberg looked like a stiff breeze could blow him over.

But the way he dressed or his peculiar mannerisms weren't what Hiccup found odd about their new teacher . It was rather how he'd always give Hiccup a lot more homework to do than he did to Elsa .

But if he was being honest, Hiccup didn't really mind the extra work dropped on his back every class. The work Mr. Aaberg gave him allowed him to spend more time in the library, exploring a new subject he came across while reading one of the books there . It was something called 'engineering'.

He tried to read about it but there was a lot of things in it that he had no clue of. But despite this, he couldn't put the book down and he often found himself taking the book to his room for a bit of bedtime reading even after the grown ups had told him off to go to sleep. He liked the way the people in the books had created such wonderful and interesting contraptions using math and science, things no one on Berk could even dream of . He also found himself loving to look at the detailed hand drawn pictures in the books about the Engineering subject. It helped him better understand the pages .

"Hiccup, come on already! You've had your nose buried in that book for almost a whole week now!" Elsa groaned as Hiccup popped his head out from behind the fortress of books he had been reading behind in the library.

" If you don't come right now, I'll let Anna eat up all of your cake." Elsa said cooly .

"All right, all right. Fine! " Hiccup frowned in defeat , slamming his book shut and hopping off his chair. "You win."

"You knew what you were getting into. " Elsa giggled as she helped him out some of the books back in their shelves. Elsa paused and for a moment, looked like she wanted to say something . Then the moment passed and she hurried toward the door.

Elsa , as he'd expected, had been far less enthusiastic about the subject than he was. But if he was being honest with himself, he did notice that she seemed a bit fidgety around him for some reason and she just kept brushing it off whenever he'd ask her what she was doing. And she seemed to be behaving in a similar way at the table during lunch as well, her eyes gazing blankly at her food even though she didn't actually seem to be seeing what her eyes were looking at, her mind clearly occupied with something else.

After lunch, Hiccup was a bit surprised when Elsa bounded out of the room without a backward glance at him, following her father out with something Hiccup could only chalk up to being a nervous demeanor. He didn't know how else to describe it. He would be lying if he told himself that he wasn't bothered by it though, as around this time, she would usually be dragging his reluctant figure down to the grounds to play on the swings. She was the only friend he really had had so far. But it was her father she'd gone with , after all. He didn't even know why he was thinking such things.