Authors Note: If you asked me I would say I have never watched Frozen. I've seen the whole movie but it has been in pieces, and never in one sitting. Without further delay, here is your story.
Regicide
Chapter 1: A Fateful Ride
The air, filled with music and sounds of summer, had lost all touch of chill as the memory of the great blizzard faded. The city of Arendelle was exuberant with anticipation for the upcoming marriage of the Princess. Royal banners were draped all along the walkway to the castle, leading right through the open gates in its formidable stone walls. Every business in the city was enjoying the commerce from the many travelers who journeyed to view the wedding. Royal families from all corners of the land had come as guests of the Queen, minus a few notable exceptions such as the families from the Southern Isles and Weselton.
The day had been a pleasant heat, but now, as the sun set, the temperature was dropping at an alarming rate. The residual heat from the day was losing the battle with the nipping chill of the night. Prince Freyr, clad in black with a shining golden cloak draped over his right shoulder, rode along a mountain trail bordered on either side by banks of snow. He was not used to the heat this far South but he still had to laugh at himself because he was still far enough North to have snow throughout most of the year. The light, like the warmth was fading, but Freyr pushed on down the slopes of the mountain, even as the trail became more treacherous. Far below him, in the fading daylight lay the city of Arendelle, his journeys final destination.
As he raced down the mountain the trail made a sharp right turn as it meandered down the hillside leaving only a steep drop. The darkness obscured Freyr's sight as his horse stepped into the void. His heart stopped as he felt himself fall with his horse. He held his breath as he fell but the sharp impact with the ground knocked a breath from him and he rolled, head over heels, down the slope. A tree trunk raced past with a whoosh as a low hanging branch slashed at him with its needles, grazing his face and drawing blood from thin slits on his cheek. Time slowed as he tumbled down the mountain until a gut wrenching crunch from his right shoulder-blade against a boulder signaled the end of his fall. In the darkness, Freyr lay against the cold stone, only the sound of his breathing and the cries of his injured horse pierced the blanket of the night.
Freyr's eyes fluttered open to find more darkness pricked with pinpoints of light and a pain in his shoulder. He struggled to sit upright as a dagger of pain tore through his arm. He gasped and reflexively grabbed his right shoulder, his golden cloak had been torn away from him in his fall and the shooting pain did not relent. His eyes adjusted to the night, he saw only the rocky clearing dotted with boulders and the forest beyond that. He pushed off one of the moss coated rocks near him with his good arm in an effort to stand, releasing a gasp of pain in the process.
"Hey! Hands to yourself. Its bad enough that you create all that noise falling down the mountain, now you decide you can just push me around!"
Freyr dove away from the rock in surprise, inadvertently landing on his injured shoulder and releasing a yelp of pain. The rock quivered, then unfurled into a small creature, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Wait, are you alright?"
"No, I've fallen down a mountain, been scared to death by a troll, and broken my shoulder. I'm most certainly not alright." growled Freyr between winces of pain as he sat himself up, again.
"Oh, I'm sorry dear. Let me take a look at your arm." Said the troll as she proceeded to take a quick look at Freyr's injury. After quickly evaluating the shoulder-blade the troll said, "we can definitely do something about this." She then proceeded to whistle loudly. Right away the near by rocks all unrolled into more trolls who gathered around Freyr.
"A guest has fallen into our valley and he needs help. Fetch Pabbie." exclaimed the first troll that Freyr had met. Then the crowd of trolls, now many individuals thick, parted and a troll wearing yellow crystals approached the guest. He then strolled around Freyr, before speaking in a clear but quiet voice, "I will fix your arm now, but you must wait in this valley until morning before you head on your way, it is far too dangerous to proceed now."
"Alright, you have a deal. However, I must find my horse once you have finished." replied Freyr.
"Fine, but you will need light. So, I will send you out with a glowing crystal. Be aware that the light only works near this valley. If you stray too far, you will be caught in the pitch black. Now let me see your arm." said Pabbie as he wove ethereal tendrils of blue magic in the air. Freyr shifted his position with a pained grunt to allow Pabbie to work his magic. Pabbie then condensed the magic into a ball before pressing it to Freyr's injured shoulder. At once a burning pain shot through Freyr's shoulder causing him to flinch away from Pabbie before it a numb coldness replaced the pain.
Freyr stumbled to his feet finding his numb arm more of a hinderance that help. It was better than the pain which had consumed it moments before. Pabbie produced a glowing crystal and handed it to Freyr as he said, "The numbness will fade and I wish you luck finding your horse. Help your horse back here and I will heal it."
"You are far too kind. Is there any way I can repay your generosity?" asked Freyr as he moved his shoulder in a vain attempt to regain feeling.
"We will not be going into Arendelle for the wedding. If you could stop by on your journey home and tell us any news from the ceremony we would be very grateful. After all, part of our family is in the ceremony." said Pabbie as he walked into the crown of trolls.
Freyr nodded to show he would return and headed into the forest with his glowing crystal in hand. At the edge of the forest the ground was only lightly covered with pine needles and snow but the covering of snow deepened as Freyr moved toward the hill he had fallen down. The knee height snow beneath his feet slowed his progress toward where he imagined his horse would be but he saw nothing in the flickering yellow glow of his crystal. So, he paused and listened in dead silence. Nothing, not a single sound broke the surrounding, oppressive darkness. Panic began to set in, he needed that horse for the contents of its saddle bag and his planned escape from Arendelle.
"If I don't find that horse my carelessness will ruin the plan. Where the hell could it be?" he muttered to himself in annoyance. He moved on peering into the darkness for his black mount. A flicker of movement caught his eye, a nearby tree clutched his clock on one of its broken branches. He forced his way through the now thigh deep snow to the tree and carefully pulled his cloak off the branches of the spruce tree. As the branch relinquished the metallic golden fabric Freyr heard a quite grunting of labored breathing. He quickly put his cloak back over his right arm and began working his way toward the sounds.
The snow, now blown into chest height drifts under the thickening canopy of trees, made for incredibly slow progress. Freyr was panting from the effort of pushing through the snow and finally pulled himself atop the snow where he lay on his back. His hot breath created clouds of white in the still frigid cold night air and his exhaustion turned to frustration. He rolled over and climbed to his knees to get a better view of his surroundings. His eyes found a dark shape laying in a patch of disturbed snow, it seemed to rise and fall with labored breath. He extended his hand and the powers of the North, the chill of ice, flowed through his veins. Ice leapt from his fingertips forming fractal structures, coating the snow before him, creating a path to where the shape lay. He stood and dashed across the ice, bypassing the relentless trudge through the snow, to where his horse lay.
He found his black mount turned on its side breathing heavily and bleeding from multiple lacerations along its entire length. He looked up from the beast, finding his saddlebag tossed in the snow nearby, unlatched from the fall down the hill. His eyes grew wide with fear as he looked at the open bag laying in the snow. Immediately, he scrambled on all fours to where it lay, yanking it from the frozen flakes. Reaching into the bag, his hand found a fabric wrapped object. He let out a relieved breath as he pulled the package from the leather bag and unwrapped it, revealing a slender knife with an electric blue stone set and sharpened as the blade. It glowed with deadly potential, a merciless icy color which felt like it could freeze a person's blood solid. Satisfied that his possession was safe, he rewrapped it and tucked it carefully at the bottom of his bag under his spare clothing.
Slinging the bag over his still slightly numb shoulder, he moved back to his horse and helped it struggle to its feet. He gazed into the trees, toward the valley of the trolls, thinking it was going to be a time-consuming trip back. He spent the next hour helping his steed limp back across an ice path to the valley where the trolls resided.
The pair finally reached the troll camp as clouds gathered overhead. Frayr felt that morning was still far off, he hadn't slept in over a day. He set off early yesterday intending to make it to Arendelle by sundown, he had been so close until he veered off the path. He left his horse under Pabbie's care and found a place under a spruce tree to rest. His numbed shoulder made getting comfortable a hassle but before long he was fast asleep beneath the umbrella of the pine forest.