"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship." – Louisa May Alcott

Little feet slowly padded down the long hallway as a small boy made his way down the corridor, leaning his hand on an outside wall for support. Bare foot, the little boy took another step forward and shivered at the coldness of the floor, and at a sudden creaking sound he heard in the distance the boy shivered again, this time for a different reason. Usually the grand hallways of his home made the child feel safe, comforted by the high ceilings and warm wooden engravings. Knowing that for all of its grandness and majesty, it was the people who filled this palace that made it warm to him, making it almost seem as if it magically could breath it's own life during daytime, when people were running around, doing chores or handling papers. However, he didn't understand why people were always stopping to smile at him, give him a few warm words, and sometimes, if he was lucky, play with him. Yes, during the day his home had a life of its own. But right now it wasn't daytime.

Night had fallen, and with it the dark coldness that seemed to put a blanket over the boy's home, muffling it from the joys of the sun. There were no moving happy people during this time of night, no guards giving him a pat on the head, no nanny trying to find him, just cold suffocating silence. It scared the boy; it scared him a lot. The place he loved so much became strange and alien in just a few short hours. Mostly, he felt it at the place he was stopped at; where the pillars on either side of the hallway were engraved with jagged lines, rising up into the ceiling where they fit into place with the ordinate bracket arms and up into the wide wooden curve in the ceiling, This oddly out of place and fancier ceiling support, during the right type or season, time of night, weather and phase of moon, created a shadow of an eerily smiling face with horns on the floor.

To the little boy it came right out of the books his parents sometimes read to him before bed if they weren't too busy, an evil demon out to eat naughty children. The boy started shaking more violently than before and he could feel wetness start to build up in his lower regions. Taking a fearful step back the boy lost his nerve to head to the beam of light created by a partly open door at the end of the long hallway, leading to the room he was on his way too. Just as he was about to turn around and seek comfort from his warm bed, his other foot landed on a slippery piece of wood and he stumbled a bit. Instincts took over as he reached out to get a handle on the wall, only to learn that he had stepped back enough to stand beside one of the hallways long windows, and as his hand slipped down the glass, being early spring it was still fogged and moist, it made the small squeaking noise one would expect to make. But to the boy the small noise echoed eerily down the long corridor and as he made his rough landing the child's eyes fell onto the demon face, just as the echo ended. There was a beat of silence and the boy, now rattled with fear, wetness sinking through his nightclothes and his bottom aching from the rough landing, promptly broke down in wet, loud tears.

"Mama! Papa!" He wailed into the night, his voice echoing down the hall.

Immediately the small slither of light at the end of the hallway became bigger as the door slammed open and worried voices echoed down the hall, almost drowned out by the boys sobbing. Soon one could see two figures, one tall fit and regal, the other small, slim and wearing a dress, hurrying down the hall where they spotted the young boy, illuminated by the moonlit window, the boys shadow creating its own eerie specter. The two adult's promptly ignored that in turn for reaching their child, and as they neared the boy, who was teary eyed and had snot running down his chubby face, he reached out to them, seeking their comfort.

"I'mb sowy!" He boy blubbers out tearfully, just as his mother swept him into her arms and found out about his wet bottom. But she ignored that in favor of comforting her child, even as the wetness soaked into the sleeves of her expensive dress.

"Archen, what are you doing out so late?" The man asked in a concerned voice while his wife whispered soothing words to her son.

"I has a n-nightmware, nanny gone, s-scared, so m-me go find Mama and Papa but m-monster come and t-try to eat me! I sworry I dint pee-pee in the buckwet!" He wailed.

"Oh love, it's okay, there are no monsters here." The woman said soothingly, rubbing her youngest back in slow circles, just as realization dawned on her husband's face.

"B-but it right there!" He yelled fearfully as he pointed toward the shadowy demon, and the woman look at where he pointed and gasped in surprise, just as the man covered a chuckle.

"Don't laugh Agdar!" The woman said sternly to her husband, slapping his arm lightly with her free hand as the man held his stomach a bit to hold back his laughter and Archen started sobbing into his mother's shoulder at seeing the 'demon' again.

"Sorry Idun darling, it just reminded me about my own childhood adventures." Agdar said, sobering up a bit at his son's tears. He then encircled his arms around his wife's waist, cradling their youngest child in-between them and they began to rock Archen slowly in hopes of calming him down. After a few minutes the child's sobs slowed down to small sniffles, and Agdar took the boy from his wife's arms, wrinkling his nose a bit at the sudden wetness sinking into his sleeve. The man then knelt down and put Archen down on his raised knee, facing him toward the 'demon' making the boy whimper a bit.

"Shush, shush, it's okay my son, there's no need to be afraid." Agdar said soothingly to his boy, and it was Idun's turn to hold back a chuckle at her husband's face as he twitched uncomfortably at the wetness now soaking into his pant leg. "You see that shadow, yes? When I was a bit older than you, I also found it, and reacted just like you. Your grandpa found me, and do you know what he told me?"

Archen simply look up at his father with wide, curious eyes.

"Well, what he told me was actually a little mean." Agdar admits sheepishly. The late king was a stern, wise man, and expected no less from his children. So when the man found 6 year old Agdar sobbing away exactly like how Archen had been found (pee-pee and everything) the man simply told him to 'suck it up buttercup' and had walked away. Agdar didn't have the heart (or lack of heart) to say that to his 3 year old son, so he told his boy a story he made after the episode to make himself feel better. "This shadow isn't a monster, or a demon. It's our protector. You see son, even if something looks frightening, and it seems like it's going to hurt you, doesn't mean it will. This monster wasn't actually a monster, just a man who looked like one, but actually had a kind heart. But everyone, just because he looked like something that wanted to hurt them, treated him like one, being- um, uh, very mean to him. Soon, because everyone treated him like one, he decided to become the monster everyone wanted him to be, and locked his heart behind a wall of steel. He did, err, uh, very, very mean things to try to become a... bad man, but his good heart did not truly like doing such horrible acts. He wanted to be a good person, but after a whole life of being feared and hated, it made him a sad and angry man. It looked like there was no turning back for him, but something happened that saved him."

"What happened?" Archen gasped out, totally engrossed into story. Well, sort of. The 3-year-old didn't understand a lot of what his Papa is talking about, but he has the general idea.

The man smiled at his son. "He fell in love."

"Eeeeeew."

"Hahaha, I thought you might say that. Her love was so bright that it melted the steel surrounding his heart. You must remember my son, love is the most powerful magic you will ever find, and heals any wound of the heart. Falling in love did that to the man, and when the person he loved with was in danger, he sacrificed his life to save that person. But his spirit stayed, watching over us, and if you love someone enough and they are in danger, it's said that he will help you save them." Agdar finished with a warm smile directed at his child, who was now staring at the shadow with fascination. It might have been a made up story, but faith is a wonderful thing and he truly believed that the story would help son in life. Even if he's a bit too young to fully understand the depth of it. Also if the look on his wife's face was anything to go by, Agdar knew he made the story too complicated, and used too many big words for a child just outside of toddler-dom to understand. At that age Anna would have thrown a tantrum, and Elsa would have started crying. Both parents were relieved that Archen idolized his father enough to just sit there and listen, even if it might cause some problems in the future.

After that moment of compilation and noticing his son was getting cold, Agdar picked up the child and handed him back to Idun, and through some silent agreement they parted ways.

An hour later the three family members were sitting in the library, all of them in fresh clothes, and pee-pee free. The man was seated at a large oak desk, writing important looking documents, while his wife was sitting in an armchair near the large fire, reading a small book, their son dozing on her lap.

"He's almost asleep." Idun said softly as she petted her child's coppery hair. "What do you think about the nightmare he had?"

Agdar put down his quill and let out a soft sigh. Before Archen started to fall asleep he told his parents (after a bit of translating) of the nightmare he had, about how the castle froze over and the halls filled with cold spikes, trapping the boy. It worried the man more than he'd admit.

"I don't think he's afraid of Elsa, if that's what you're asking dear. I admit, it's a rather creative nightmare for a child his age, but I'm positive that he didn't make the connection between the two." Archen didn't take to Elsa's powers the way Anna did, who loved the ice shows her older sister put on the moment she was born. But the young boy tended to shy away whenever Elsa tried to play with him, and Agdar's two youngest children were still too immature to play peacefully with each other since both seemed to have inherited their grandfather's fiery temper. This made Elsa and Anna gravitate toward each other, leaving Archen alone, and unable to bond with his siblings. The couple wasn't that worried though, for one thing they were all still very young, and they may still bond, with time. "I think that he may just dislike the cold, nothing really to do with Elsa."

"But she has ice powers, how can a dream about ice have nothing-."

"Mama! Papa!" The parents heard for the second time that night followed by a wave of cold air, making Archen curl up a bit more and shiver. The couple quickly gave each other a look, making Agdar head quickly to the door, and after putting the young boy down onto the chair, Idun followed her husband toward the call of their eldest daughter. By the time the King and Queen left the room, Prince Archen of Arendelle had fallen asleep.

Archen was suddenly awoken by the sound of hurrying footsteps, and rubbing his tired eye's he looked up to see what was happening. Running past him was his mother, father and a cold Elsa, looking terribly upset by something. His sister Anna was wrapped inside a blanket and Archen wondered how she could sleep through all of the noise they were making.

"Elza?" He mumbled sleepily, and all of them suddenly jumped in surprise, making his father stop searching through the books.

"Go back to sleep dear." Idun said hurriedly, loosening the firm hold she had on Anna after noting that she forgot that Archen was still here. Elsa ignored her brother in favor of worriedly staring at her father, who had finally found the book he was looking for. As they set their course Archen clambered down from the chair his was residing in to pull on his father's pant leg.

"Can I come?" He asks, looking up at his ruffled parents. Archen didn't know what was going on, just that they were all going somewhere and that they were doing it without him. Hardly fair in his mind, that his sisters got to go on a trip without him.

"No Archen, you can't come. Can you be a good boy and sleep here until we come back?" Agdar asks his youngest, kneeling down and putting a hand on the boys shoulder. Usualy the child would argue more, but the emotions in his father's voice, the way his parents held themselves, and how scared his eldest sister looked, even a child as young as Archen knew when to argue and when to listen.

By the time they left through the open doors of the library the little prince had fallen back to sleep on the chair. The air was warmed again from the smoldering fireplace; all thoughts of a cold, ice filled castle left his mind as the peace of sleep overtook him. Little did the young boy know, the lives of his family would change that night, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Welcome, dear readers, to the prologue of Heart of Steel

I'm surprised that I haven't seen one of these yet, an Elsa and Anna have a little brother/sister fic. Admittedly, I haven't read that much Frozen fic's yet so that might be one of the reasons, but I doubt that I'm the first one. I will try to update regularly, but reviews do help get the motivation going.

I am a girl, so this is not a Self-Insert, but an OC story, about how our princesses having a younger brother would make things more interesting. But, honestly, I'm planning to make him cause more trouble than good, and I'm pretty damned sure that he is not going to be a Mary Sue.

Fact: Archen was afraid of dolls until the age of 10

Cheers,

Blunt Arrow