It's here, folks! The sequel to "The Temperature Rises." Like I've said before, this story will be written by RStyle and myself. Sorry it took long to publish. Stuff happens, ya know? Anyway, RStyle and I hope you enjoy it!
Two weeks have passed since Hans and the Duke of Weselton no longer became a problem for the Arendelle sisters. In short time, most of the northern kingdoms knew about Anna's new ability, and after a bit of resistance, Arendelle became used to her powers and started to accept them. However, very few used the same cruel sentence that Hans once told Elsa and Anna at the palace, while he tried to rule it for himself.
I'm sure the people won't want to have both a freak and monster to rule them.
That wasn't the only thing Hans has left behind. Not only did he injure morally the crowns of Arendelle, but also he injured Anna seriously. After the wound had healed, a large scar has been revealed. A mark - a reminder - of what happened in the past couple weeks. Instead of letting it discourage her, that scar only served to remind Anna that she could do anything she wanted to do, with only one thing in her heart. Love.
It was her unconditional, platonic love for her sister that kept her going. She ignored all the little voices in her head that told her how dangerous that act of bravery and sacrifice was, and only heard what her heart had to say: Save Elsa, save your sister.
Elsa was slowly healing from the burning heart, leaving her, however, momentarily stuck in a wheelchair, a contraption built by a blacksmith just for her. She did complain at first, but when she noticed that Anna wanted to learn (with her) how to deal with her powers, not even that bit of discomfort could annoy her.
After all the royal duties had been cared for the day, Elsa joined her sister in the courtyard of the palace again, the place where both of them decided to let go, and use their powers freely, no need to mention that the access was restricted to only a few people: Kai, Gerda, Kristoff and his reindeer Sven, Olaf and Leif, and obviously, Anna and Elsa.
Anna's face scrunched in concentration. She stared directly at her target, 50 feet away, which were some old barrels that Elsa decided to use for a target practice. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground and her legs were spread slightly. She clenched one of her hands, turning it into a fist and steadied the other one, extending it directly to the target. She narrowed her eyes and quickly felt the energy leaving her hand.
A large fireball formed in her hand and with a bang, it separated from her, heading directly to the barrels, knocking them down on an explosion and leaving them ablaze.
"Great job, Anna! You're learning quite fast! Feet forward, back straight, and keeping your eyes on the target," Elsa called out, clapping her hands. "That's... twelve perfect shots on a row!"
Anna beamed at the compliment with a large smile on her face. "Thanks! Um... Do you want to call it a day?" she said, walking to her sister's side.
"No, no! We can... practice some more!" Elsa answered.
"Are you sure? I mean, if you're tired, we can stop," Anna insisted.
"Anna... I'm not the one moving around, using my powers... As you know that forcing them to the extreme may tire you out. I should be asking you if you want to continue, or not." Elsa explained, chuckling a bit.
"I'm perfectly fine! More than fine... I'm great! I've got a lot of energy. I feel like I can do anything I want!" Anna exclaimed, jumping in excitement, making her sister laugh at her excitement.
"Calm down, Anna... You need to burn some of this energy. Practicing some more is the best option..." Elsa answered her hyper sister calmly. "In these past two weeks, you have almost complete control of them, and you're not afraid anymore!"
Anna gave her big sister a small smile.
"Okay... What do you have in mind next?" Anna asked, giving some steps backwards until she reached the middle of the courtyard.
"See if you can make some fireballs..." Elsa said, pausing in mid-sentence. "...and juggle them."
Anna smiled. In her mind, it was one of the easiest things she could do... Juggle fireballs? Pfft.
She made three fireballs in her left hand. She took a deep breath and started to juggle them perfectly. She didn't actually knew how to juggle real balls, but the fireballs felt... different. It was like she controlled the fire without really having to touch them. Although they weren't physical at all, they were still moving! And she was juggling them perfectly.
"Great! You're a natural, Anna," Elsa said.
Anna twirled her hand and the fireballs dissipated into thin air.
"That's because I've got a great teacher!" Anna answered with a warm smile on her lips.
The princess cleared her throat and repositioned at the middle of the courtyard. "Any other suggestions?"
"Can you make a fire whip?" Elsa asked, raising an eyebrow to her sister.
"Pfft, that's easy!" Anna mocked in answer.
The strawberry blonde created a long stream of fire and moved it around like a whip, making Elsa's mouth fall open in awe.
She's more talented than me... Elsa thought, not that she was envying her sister… It was just difficult for her to believe that there's someone else than her that had powers, and someone even more powerful than her was just too much.
After few minutes playing with the whip, Anna made it dissipate into the air and she walked back to her sister. "What do you think?" she asked.
Elsa blinked a few times and left her trance.
"What? Oh! That was...great! You've been using your powers like you've had them your whole life!" Elsa said, meaning every word.
Anna smiled humbly at her sister.
"Thank you so much for teaching me, Elsa... I kinda feel bad that you still insist on helping me when you're not feeling well yourself," Anna said.
"Don't feel bad, Anna. You know it's my pleasure to help you with this. I'm more than happy to teach you. I won't let my problems get in the way of what's important for me… What I love," Elsa said with a warm smile.
Anna gave her elder sister a huge smile and threw her arms around Elsa's neck. The platinum blonde instantly returned the warm embrace. Very warm indeed. After a minute, Anna pulled away.
"I'll take you back inside," Anna said, grabbing the handles on the back of the chair.
"Thank you," Elsa said, and then mumbled. "I wish I didn't have to sit in this thing."
"But it does help you out a lot, and you'll be out of it soon once you get your strength back," Anna listened to her sister's mumble and answered, pushing the chair towards the doors.
"But it makes me look silly. I'm a queen and I've been confined to a chair with wheels. Who even came up with that idea? It's just weird," Elsa complained.
Anna giggled at her sister's small rant, pushing the chair through the doors and entering the castle's main halls.
"Elsa, relax. If it weren't for this thing, you would be stuck in your room all day. Don't you think that thirteen years is enough?" Anna mocked, and instantly regretted it when she noticed that her sister forced her head to look down and didn't reply, her hands on her lap, and shaking her head.
"E-Elsa?" Anna stopped pushing the chair and went to the front of the chair to face her sister's defeated look. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that."
"It's fine," Elsa snarled.
"I-I mean... I didn't want to say that. It was a bad call, I'm so-" Anna attempted to apologize.
"Arthur? Klaus? Could you please take my chair and myself upstairs?" Elsa called for two nearby guards, which rushed to attend her wish. Elsa didn't look at Anna's dumbfounded face. She didn't want to. The guards picked her up and carried the queen up, leaving Anna's field of view.
Anna stared at the ground, defeated. Congratulations, you made your sister upset... again, she thought. Anna walked to the kitchen where she found Gerda cleaning some dishes up.
"Anna! Let me guess... Chocolate?" Gerda always looked like a mother for both Anna and Elsa, especially after the tragic accident that took their parents lives. It didn't take any time at all to discover the main interests of both girls. Gerda always knew Elsa's secret and she did want to tell Anna about it, but she was still even following her employers' orders, even after their death.
"I guess..." Anna said lowly, thoughts filling her mind with many ways of apologizing to her sister.
Gerda watched as Anna looked at the floor. She approached the young girl and placed a hand on her back.
"Is something wrong, your highness?" she asked.
"I... I think I've offended Elsa. I think it was something that I said - mocked, probably - about the time she has been confined in her room. After those thirteen years I've thought that she wanted to forget about it. I think she did, but I had to be stupid enough to remind her," Anna said.
Gerda smiled sadly in response.
"My dear... I don't think your sister's isolation is something that should be humorous. It was a very difficult time for her. Her majesty is still healing emotionally as well...but not just from the burning heart. She's still healing of the pain she had suffered being away from you and the thought that she had lost you... twice," Gerda said.
"I also thought I had lost her... And now I think that I left my feelings mess up my conscious," Anna said. "I risked my life... but I risked it for-"
"For your sister... It doesn't matter what people say. If it were me, I would do the same for the person I love. I would go to the ends of the earth to protect this person. You did right, my princess. You did right..." Gerda said with a warm smile at Anna. "She will forgive you, Anna. You can talk with her later... Just give her some time."
Anna hugged Gerda tightly with a huge smile on her face and few stray tears flowing down her cheeks.
"Thank you Gerda," Anna said.
"It's nothing, my dear... I'm just glad that both of you are safe and sound. It would be extremely hard to lose both of you," Gerda said.
After a minute she pulled away the embrace and kissed the redhead's forehead, to which she received a giggle in response.
"While you were training with the queen, Sir Kristoff came here and asked about you. He said he will be staying at the stables," Gerda said.
"Oh, okay! I'm going to see him now. Thank you Gerda!" Anna said, waving to the servant and running outside.
"Have fun!" Gerda called out and waved back.
Kristoff stood in the stables, trying to feed his reindeer Sven. However, he was being stubborn... again.
"Come on! What's wrong with these ones?" Kristoff asked to his best friend, holding up a bundle of carrots.
Sven grunted in answer. "They taste like month old socks!" Kristoff said for the reindeer.
Kristoff raised an eyebrow at that answer. "How do you even know what month old socks taste like?"
The reindeer gave up and plopped down onto the ground as a response to his question. Suddenly, Olaf waltzed in.
"Hi, guys!" he said, cheerfully.
"Hey, Olaf. Where's your friend Leif?" Kristoff turned his head to face the snowman entering the stables.
"Oh! We're just um... playing! Hide and seek," Olaf said.
"So... He's hiding?" Kristoff asked.
"Yep! And I'm seeking!" Olaf said.
"Why aren't you seeking him?" Kristoff asked, raised an eyebrow.
Even after everything that happened and after Leif have proven himself worthy of Olaf's friendship, the snowman still didn't like Anna's fireball. Using the same excuse that he's "just too warm for me."
"I'll seek him in a few hours. Why rush?" Olaf said, making Kristoff chuckle a bit.
Anna skipped into the stables and hopped onto Kristoff's back, making both of them fell into a mount of straw and both of them burst into laughter.
"Who do we have here? Your highness," Kristoff said, cleaning his clothes from the straw.
"Aww... Stop it! It's just me," Anna said.
"Me? Who's me? I don't know a me," Kristoff answered her with a smile, mockingly.
The strawberry blonde giggled and leaned in, giving her soul mate a soft kiss, and he immediately returned it. Sven and Olaf groaned in disgust by the sight and made Anna and Kristoff pull away and chuckle at their response.
"Can't you do that when no one's watching?" Olaf asked the two lovebirds.
Anna and Kristoff straightened themselves and sat down on the straw. Kristoff's attention came back to Anna and he realized her actual mood, allowing herself leave a sigh of depression.
"What's wrong?" Kristoff asked, stroking Anna's hair.
"I think I hurt Elsa's feelings earlier," Anna said, her voice weakened by her guilt.
"How?" Kristoff asked.
"I mocked her isolation. I-I didn't mean it! It was just the spur of the moment and I..." Anna snarled, but she gave up in speaking and sighed again.
"Why did you do that?" Kristoff asked, the surprise in his voice evident.
"I don't know... It just slipped. I wasn't thinking when I said it," Anna said.
"Well, you do tend to speak before thinking" Olaf said and received in answer an annoyed glare from Kristoff. He quickly received the message. "So... I.. I gotta go! Seek... Leif! Yeah, Leif!" Olaf awkwardly said, hurrying himself to leave the stables.
"Did you tried to speak with her?" Kristoff asked, rubbing his hand on his lady's back.
"Not really... I just hope that she's not too mad at me," Anna said.
"Anna, listen up," Kristoff gently grabbed Anna's chin and brought her attention to his eyes. "Even if she's mad at you, she will forgive you. She loves you, she decided to give up her life just to protect you," Kristoff said, moving his hand from her chin to her cheek. "Honestly, I don't think that nothing will ever tear you two apart. You guys are attached at the hip," Kristoff smiled.
Anna smiled and wrapped her arms around Kristoff's neck and kissed him softly. Under the kiss, both of them were smiling widely, their love being streamed through their act of true love.
Kristoff pulled away from the kiss after a minute or two and gazed into Anna's teal eyes. "What was that for?"
"To show how much I love you," Anna said, smiling widely.
Kristoff smiled in response and pecked the strawberry blonde on the cheek. "I love you, too. More than you can imagine," He chuckled. "Wanna go for a walk?"
"I'd love to," Anna said.
With that, the two lovebirds left the stables, hand in hand, for a walk around Arendelle. Anna had temporarily forgotten about the discussion with her sister that still needed to take place and kept her mind busy with the other person she truly loved: Kristoff.
We hope you are enjoying it so far!