Disclaimer: all the characters, locations and items in this work are trademarked by Disney, Sega and Ubisoft, unless noted otherwise. All original characters, if not related to existing characters, are owned by the author.

Chapter 1 - Castaway

The sun had just risen over the horizon, and the majority of the people already awake on the ship were the sailors.

There was only one exception: a man, covered with a brown leather jacket, with a hood over his head to protect himself from the biting cold that pushed the vessel towards the most northern point of the world. He was leaning over the ship's rail, which was very unusual: the majority of the passengers of a ship like the Sea Diamond, who had zero experience as sailors, preferred to stay on the lower deck, where their cabins were located.

However, the last thing he wanted was to be confined: it brought back bad memories of the last twelve months. Twelve bloody months in which he had been locked up, with almost no space to move, and unable to see the sunlight, something he missed a lot.

The sight of the rising sun, alone, was a good reason for Jason Ryan Smith to be awake at 5a.m. on the Sea Diamond's rail.

"Good morning, Mr. Smith", greeted a voice, causing him to wince. Only after he turned around to see the voice's owner, did Jason allow himself to relax: it was the ship's captain, a tall and slightly overweight man with white hair who had already seen everything in the forty years he had sailed throughout the kingdoms of the world.

Although he was a gentle and kind man, Captain Jonathan Rose knew how to be hard and demanding with his men when it was necessary, because there was no other way to survive on the sea; commanding the Sea Diamondfor more than twenty years, he was a man loved by his crew, which earned him the distinction of not being the target of a single mutiny during all those years - a rare feat among the Royal Navy of Corona.

"Good morning, Captain Rose, I didn't know that you were already awake", replied the passenger, politely.

"Well, Mr. Smith, as the captain of this solemn vessel, it's my duty to see that everything is alright on all the decks, I don't want to be caught off-guard."

Jason forced a chuckle. "I understand, Captain."

"Anyways, I hope that there's not a problem in asking, but what are you doing here at this hour on deck, my son? I thought you would be following the example of other passengers and sleeping a little more before breakfast."

The hooded man held in a sigh - he knew that sharing his pain was good for the soul, but at that moment, the last thing he wanted was to share the images that haunted his nightmares.

Still, there was no harm in telling the truth - he just needed to be succinct.

"Nightmares," said the young man, playing with his hood. "I woke up a little more than an hour ago from a particularly bad one, and I couldn't sleep anymore, no matter how I tried."

"I understand, not everyone can sleep in peace, particularly on the high seas," said the captain, leaning on the ship's rail. "But anyways, today will be a long day. Maybe you can take a nap after lunch, Mr. Smith. Our cook decided to prepare a recipe he learned in Soleanna, a dish called... lasagna."

"I know that dish, my mother made it when I was little," said Jason, which earned him a watchful eye of Captain Rose. "I'm not from Soleanna, but my mom's from there, and even after she married my dad, she kept some traditions, like the original lasagna."

"So you should know how very heavy this food is, no?"

"Certainly!", laughed the young man, while playing with the edge of the hood. "My father could never spend all afternoon awake after eating a plate of lasagna, so it would be no surprise if all the passengers decided to take a nap later... unless there is a Soleannean on the ship."

"No, my boy," said Rose, after a brief chuckle. "Almost all the passengers are from Corona, or Arendelle, or even the..."

"MAN OVERBOARD!"

The cry of one of the sailors, coming directly from the bow of the ship, made Jonathan Rose interrupt the pleasant conversation and run in direction of his subordinate, with Jason on his heels.

"Captain, there's a man clinging to a piece of wood about a mile away from here," said the sailor the moment Rose entered his earshot range. "I can't say for sure, but he's not doing very well from what I can see."

"Is he injured, any blood?"

"No bleeding, sir, otherwise he would have attracted all the sharks within a mile, and there would be nothing left of him."

"Well done, prepare the boat and call two men to accompany the rescue, Williamson. Jenkins, go call the doctor and tell him that, unless his patient is having a heart attack right now, to drop whatever he's doing and come to the deck immediately", shouted the captain to another sailor who was approaching him - he nodded and turned back before running at full speed towards the lower decks.

Jason was shocked to feel the strong hand of Jonathan on his shoulder. With a rueful expression, the captain began to speak. "Mr. Smith, I know this may be asking too much of a passenger, but you are fluent in several languages. As we don't know the nationality of our castaway, you could stick around me as our translator?"

"Yes, Captain, there's no problem with that."

Rose sighed in relief - it was one less problem to deal with.

In a matter of minutes, the boat commanded by Williamson left the Sea Diamond toward the man, who was still adrift at sea, clinging to a piece of wood as if his life depended on it.

Jason, Captain Rose and some crew members and passengers who had left their beds observed Williamson and his colleagues approach the castaway and rescue him carefully from the piece of wood. Even from a distance, it was possible to notice that the man was weakened - as the region had been affected by storms until the previous day, it appeared that he had been there for at least twenty-four hours without food and only drinking water from the rain, if it had rained since.

"Did you call me, Captain?" A new voice asked, approaching the men who were leaning against the Sea Diamond's railing. Jason turned and saw a man in a white coat and gloves in his hands - a doctor.

"Yes, Dr. Petersen. Our sailors have found a castaway a league from here, I sent Williamson, Dittmer, and Brendel to rescue him. Mr. Smith is accompanying the rescue as a translator, since we do not know the nationality of the man. "

"Alright, I've already separated the instruments for work, if need be."

"Captain, the boat is already coming back, should I prepare the ropes?"

"Yes, Reitz, take Jenkins to help you with the winch. Dr. Petersen, Mr. Smith, come with me, every second is precious now. "

Nodding in agreement, both the doctor and Jason followed Captain Rose to the section of the ship where all the lifeboats were concentrated - except for one, which was being used at that moment.

Taking a deep breath, Jason tried to calm himself down - it would do no good to use his traditional remedy to quell his anxiety, not only because of the limited space and the ocean around him, but because it would also be difficult to explain to the captain how he could do that.

His ability, considered by some a blessing, and by others a curse. Which had caught the attention of the doctor, and resulted in the imprisonment of his family by the King's army.

He was not willing to return to the hell from where he had escaped.

"Captain, we're ready to go up, the man we rescued, he... he's very cold, I don't know if he'll survive," announced the sailor, whom Jason recognized by his voice as Williamson.

"Guys, you heard him! Get the boat up quickly, we're out of time!", shouted the captain, ordering the other sailors to pull the boat into the ship - in a matter of minutes, Williamson and his two colleagues left the boat, carrying a man wearing a tattered green leather military uniform.

The soldier's skin was very pale, Jason did not know if it was because of the lack of food, the cold or the excess of time in the seawater - a question answered by Dr. Petersen, after picking up his instruments and analyzing the man's body.

Several minutes passed, and the expectation of everyone surrounding the doctor and patient increased. The soldier, Jason noted, seemed to be breathing heavily.

"Well Doctor, what does he have?", asked Captain Rose.

"Severe hypothermia, Captain," the doctor replied, with a sigh of despondency, as he stored the instruments in a suitcase. "In addition, he apparently has several broken ribs, one of which is close to the lungs. If he stays on the ship for more than a day, we will not be able to save him. How far is the nearest port?"

"Two days," replied Rose, regretfully. "We were already at the end of the trip to the Royal City of Arendelle, and there are no more ports along the way, not even one with almost nonexistent medical conditions."

"What is his nationality, sir? Maybe he can tell you what happened?"

With Petersen's comment, Rose went and knelt beside the soldier, searching his ruined uniform for clues.

The captain's eyes widened at the sight of a small brooch affixed to the breastplate of his uniform - it was golden, with a violet stone in the center, and shaped like a crocus, the national flower of Arendelle. Which meant that the castaway was...

"By all the gods of the pantheon, this man is a Royal Guard!", exclaimed Rose loudly.

A collective murmur spread through the ship, and Jason knew the reason - the Royal Guards were Arendelle's elite force, charged, first, with the protection of the Royal Family.

But that did not explain why a Royal Guard appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean, clutching a piece of a ship.

"Mr. Smith, now it's your turn. Please find out what happened", Captain Rose said, turning to Jason, who swallowed hard before approaching the doctor, the sailor, and the shipwrecked man, all with their eyes on the traveler. It was then that the soldier spoke for the first time since he arrived on the ship.

[["Please remove the hood... I have to know who I'm talking to."]]

Nodding, Jason reached for his hood and pulled it off his head ... revealing royal blue hair that reached his neck.

[["My name is Jason Ryan Smith, and I am a traveler from Westside Island, on the way to Arendelle... Who are you, and what happened?"]]

[["I am Thomas Berget, Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Guard of Arendelle... I was aboard HMAS Vålerenga, returning from a state voyage to the Republic of Spagonia with Their Majesties, King Agdar and Queen Idunn, when our ship was hit this dawn by a storm…"]]

That was all the Royal Guard was able to say about before he had a violent cough. Holding him carefully so as not to hurt him, Jason patted him lightly on the back until Berget stopped coughing.

[["And what happened to the ship, Lieutenant Berget?"]]

[["We tried to take the Vålerenga out of the storm, but a rogue wave caused the ship to be thrown to the side. I was trying to pull down the sails with my colleagues when I was hit, and thrown into the sea, and saw another wave split the ship in half, throwing several of my mates into the ocean."]]

[["And the king and the queen?"]]

[["They... they went to the rail, and threw a bottle with a message inside, before they approached me and handed me a leather pouch, with strict instructions to deliver it to Lord Chamberlain Kai. That's when I was called in to collect the sails, and the first wave struck the ship."]]

[["So... they died?"]]

[["I'm afraid so, Mr. Smith…"]], he replied, before coughing again. Except to the horror of Jason, Rose, and Petersen, Berget began to cough blood.

Which meant that his lung had been pierced by the broken rib - meaning that he had only a few minutes to live.

"Go on, Mr. Smith, before it's too late!", cried the doctor urgently, causing Jason to turn back to Berget. [["Lieutenant, I…"]]

[["Mr. Smith, I'm going to die, isn't it?"]]

Jason nodded. Carefully, Berget indicated a pocket in the ripped uniform - the blue-haired traveler took his hand to the indicated spot and took out a greenish-colored leather bag with the crocus symbol. Even with the sunlight, it was possible to see a strong violet glow coming from inside the package.

[[Then I must say at once what I know, before it is too late... this bag contains the supreme jewel of Arendelle, who, according to the legend, was delivered by the gods to the first Frossen, and which is always owned by the ruling king or queen. So, I need you to go to the castle and deliver the jewel to Princess Elsa. I'm entrusting this heirloom to you, but I need you to promise me that you will go to the castle.]]

[[But... but, I...]]

[[Promise, please!], Berget asked, coughing more blood. [[I do not know what kind of jewel this is, but the king told me that the princess will need it to rule.]]

[[All right, Lieutenant Berget, I promise.]]

The Arendellian's eyes shone with gratitude. It was the last thing he did before he suffered a violent cough, coughing more blood until he stopped coughing, moving - breathing.

"Rest in peace, and find the absolution you dreamed of," muttered Captain Rose, as Jason carefully closed Berget's eyes.

A mournful silence settled among everyone on the deck of the Sea Diamond, watching Berget's body, pale and covered in blood, in the arms of the Westside Island traveler.

"Mr. Smith, sorry to interrupt you, but I... I need to prepare his body", murmured Dr. Petersen, ducking down to Jason's level, his green eyes overflowing with unshed tears.

He was so overwhelmed by his emotions that he did not even notice when two sailors, at the request of the ship's doctor, removed Berget's body. It was only when Rose nudged him on the shoulder that the traveler came out of the "trance".

"Mr. Smith, what... what did he say?"

Jason swallowed hard, before answering, as tears streamed down his scarred face.

"The king and queen of Arendelle are dead."

"What?!" exclaimed the captain, his face taking on an upset look almost immediately.

"They died... victims of a storm."

Immediately, Captain Rose ordered all the sails to be unfurled, so that they would travel to the Royal City as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Jason, still overwhelmed, headed for his cabin; as soon as he got there, he threw himself on the bed, unable to believe it was not even eight o'clock in the morning - and he was already more tired than he could imagine.

He did not even want to imagine the amount of trouble on his hands: to go to Arendelle's castle and tell Princess Elsa - wouldn't she be queen now?, he thought - that her parents were dead.

And he still had the jewelry to deliver, at Berget's request.

Slowly he lifted the leather pouch over his head, and wondered what the Arendellian royalty's jewel would look like. For a few seconds he had a debate in his head about whether or not to see the gem. On the one hand, it had been entrusted to him, on the other, it was owned by the royal family of Arendelle.

In the end, his curiosity won the battle, and he decided to see the jewel with his own eyes.

Opening the package, Jason noticed that the violet glow he had seen on the deck increased exponentially, illuminating the cabin completely. Flipping the leather bag upside down, a violet stone, the size of the palm of his hand and sculpted like a diamond, fell on the bed.

Jason's stomach jerked with pure terror.

That stone... was just like the one hidden in his luggage. The only difference was that the color of the gem in his possession was white, not violet.

Quickly, he hurried to his luggage and rolled up his clothes until he found the box he had managed to steal from the Doctor before escaping. It was really a stone of the same kind as had been entrusted to him.

A Chaos Emerald.

"By the gods, what else is going to happen?" Jason murmured, looking incredulously at the two emeralds on the bed.

Little did he know that much was yet to come.

Two hours later, Jason left his cabin and returned to the deck; Some sailors were wiping the blood off the floor while Rose was near the bow of the ship, holding a pigeon in his hands.

As he made his way to the captain, Jason could see a small piece of parchment, sealed and tied to the bird's leg.

"What happened, Captain?", Jason asked as Rose released the pigeon into the air toward the royal city.

"I sent a message to the Lord Chamberlain, informing him that we have news of HMAS Vålerenga, and requesting an audience with Princess Elsa, now the future Queen. I imagine there will be a carriage waiting for us at the port of the Royal City."

"We? This means that..."

"Yes, Mr. Smith, I'm sorry to abuse your goodwill, but I need you to come with me to the audience as a translator, since my Norwegian is not very good. Besides, you talked to the man, so…"

"No, Captain, that's fine. In addition, Lieutenant Colonel Berget asked me to go to the castle, to deliver something to the princess."

"If it's not too much trouble, may I ask what he delivered to you?"

Jason pondered what he was supposed to say - he knew he could not escape with the answer "sorry, but I can not tell," because even Berget had not required him to keep it a secret. Also, he knew he could not talk too much about the Chaos Emeralds, as this might bring unwanted questions about his past with the Doctor.

So he decided to stick to the words of the late Lieutenant Colonel.

"According to Berget, what I have received is the supreme jewel of Arendelle, entrusted to him by the king before being swept by a wave and thrown into the sea. According to him, this jewel has been with the royal family since the beginning of time, and should stay with the king or queen in power. So he asked me to give the jewel to the princess."

"I understand. Well, I'm even afraid of what might happen at this hearing, they say the princess is not exactly sociable."

"Because?"

"Well... she's an only child, you know? She had a younger sister, who died as a child, and has not left the castle much since then, so she is not accustomed to contact with strangers. In addition, there are rumors that she has magical powers."

This caught Jason's attention - ever since he was a child, he was certain that he was the only human with some superhuman trait from birth. But if what Rose was suggesting was true, then he was not alone.

And what guaranteed that there weren't more special people?

"Well, the rumors are that she has absolute control over snow and ice, which comes in handy for a country that is covered in snow for six to ten months a year, and which has ice as one of its main export products."

"Wow... she must be a very special person."

"I think so. I just hope she can handle the sad news we're bringing."

"I hope so, Captain... I know the pain of losing parents, even if they are alive…"

"What do you mean, Mr. Smith?"

Jason took a deep breath before replying, "I'm going to Arendelle to apply for political asylum from the princess."

Seeing Captain Rose's eyes widen, the blue-haired boy quickly explained what had happened on Westside Island a year ago - he just left out his season in the doctor's lab.

"By all gods…" murmured Rose, surprised. "I thought all the refugees had gone to Soleanna and Corona."

"Yes, but I had a feeling... a strange feeling, so to speak, that my place would be in no other country but Arendelle. Now, I'll find out if I'm right or not depending on the mood of the princess."

Neither of them said anything else. Instead, they leaned against the bulwark of the bow, looking out over the icy sea of that icy autumn morning, watching the little icebergs on their way to the Arendelle.

They could only pray that the future queen would not adhere to the old custom of killing messengers of bad news.

Author Note: Well, thank you very much for reading the first chapter of Ice Blue Blur: Open Your Heart. I hope you really enjoyed this story, because it was very fun to write this piece of work.

Maybe you are considering who Jason Ryan Smith is... don't worry, you will have an explanation in a few chapters. And it's a very challenging piece of work - I'm a Brazilian, so, first, I write in Portuguese, and only after that do I translate it to English (with the help of doctor Google). Thanks a lot, by the way, to Walard and Striga for proofreading this work!

And, before I forget, this is NOT an OC/Elsa ship - the main couple will be revealed very soon.

By now, I have 9 chapters already written, and 6 translated to English - currently, I'm writing chapter 10 (Royals), and... I don't have the slightest idea how many chapters this fic will have, but... I hope you favorite it, follow it, and review it - I will update this story every Monday - I hope.

Bye!