Chapter 2:
Joseff had escaped the tension right after Catherine mentioned the Duke's attack, and paced through the gardens of the palace, thinking of how he would thwart the assault successfully. Though it was mostly silent, the sound of one of the gardeners cutting flowers got under his skin. At all the wrong moments, the snipping of the blade would drive him up the wall, and after a mere two minutes, he boiled over.
"Could you try to make less of a racket?" Joseff remarked, trying not to lose his temper.
The gardener turned quickly toward Joseff, and gasped. "Your majesty!" she cried. "Terribly sorry! Queen Elsa requested that the snowdrops be cut for the bouquet displays, and I can be an awfully loud cutter, and I––"
Joseff couldn't help but smile at the teenage girl. "It's fine," he replied. "I just––I've a horrible problem on my hands, and I'm just not quite sure how to solve it."
"Perhaps I could help? I've been noted at being able to solve problems."
"Maybe not this one," he said. "Your familiar with the region of Weselton, are you not?"
"Who isn't? What does that weasel want now?"
"He's built an army against Arendelle," Joseff murmured. "And I don't think we're prepared for that after the attack from the Southern Isles."
The girl stood up, and her kerchief blew away in the process. She tried to flatten her messy brown bun, but embarrassed, she couldn't. Joseff laughed, only making her blush all the more.
"Here," Joseff said. "Let me help."
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I couldn't ask you to do that, your majesty."
"It would have been no problem."
There was an awkward silence for just a moment, and the gardener girl gathered her basket of snowdrops. "Well!" she cried. "I must be off. The queen expects her snowdrops at dinner tonight. It was lovely talking with you, Prince Joseff."
"Might I ask your name?"
The girl whirled around, and her green eyes glittered with a hint of embarrassment. She pushed a wisp of her bangs back into place, and stuttered a bit.
"My––my name?"
Joseff flashed a grin. "I believe that's what I asked."
"Ah... Rachel."
"What a lovely name."
She turned back around to walk in the castle, and Joseff chuckled. "What's your real name?"
Once again embarrassed, she sighed. "Fine. My name's Blomsy."
Joseff stifled another laugh, and sat on a wooden seat in the middle of the gardens. "Blomsy, huh?"
Blomsy dropped her basket, and sat next to Joseff, plucking a flower from a potted plant and sliding into her hair, beside the now only slightly mussed bun. "Yeah," she replied. "I know, stupid. I hate my name. I always have."
Joseff leaned forward in the seat, and chuckled. "You think your name is stupid? They've called me 'Yo-yo Joseff' for as long as I could remember."
"Kids can be cruel."
"My sister started that, actually," Joseff said. "But I like your name."
"Certainly not as lovely as Rachel, now is it?"
Joseff stood up and folded his arms. "Now, wherever did you get an idea like that?"
Blomsy smiled, and stood up, too. "A figment of my imagination, I suppose. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get those snowdrops to the table!"
"Wait!" Joseff cried after her. "Do you, ah, think I could see you again later? I could... use some help with that problem of mine."
Blomsy's green eyes sparkled. "I'd like that," she said. "Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow."
XxX
"I told you, war is definitely not my field of expertise!" Kristoff cried, throwing his hands up. "But Elsa, I'm telling you, our armies will hold up!"
Frost crept up the walls of the study, and Elsa clutched her hand tightly. "And I told you, I think we should get out of here while we still can!"
"And run away? Since when has that solved anything?"
Elsa could feel her hands frosting over, and she tried to control herself. But it was no use. "Since when have I taken advice from someone who isn't even ruling the kingdom?!"
Kristoff barely sidestepped the hurling icicle, which smashed into the wall behind him. Shocked at what she had just done, Elsa tried to generate heat by rubbing her hands together, hoping to stop the icy rampage.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the open door, and Anna stepped in, barely able to move. "Have we come to a conclusion in here?"
Kristoff rushed across the room to his wife. "Anna! You shouldn't be walking around until you're stronger! You know that."
"I know, but I couldn't find Joseff anywhere! Heidi was getting her fencing lessons from the general, and you were meeting with Elsa, and little Hans wouldn't stop crying! And then I heard Elsa lash out, and I had to see if anything happened to either of you!"
"Come on," Elsa said, joining Kristoff at Anna's side. "You need to get some rest. The doctor says you can't move for at least another week."
Defensively, Kristoff pulled Anna away from Elsa. "I'll get her to her room. You... need to control yourself before you hurt anyone else."
"Kristoff!" Anna cried.
"She nearly killed me before your eyes!"
Elsa's eyes flooded with fear. "It was an accident!" she tried to tell him.
"Everything you do is an accident," Kristoff muttered.
Anna tried to pull Kristoff away from her sister. "Come on, Kristoff. You don't mean that."
"Of course he does," Elsa whispered, Kristoff's words cutting deep into her heart. "You said you'd never be like this. You said that you cared about me!"
"Elsa, Kristoff, please!" Anna shouted. "Stop!"
The room went silent, and Elsa slowly stepped backwards once, causing the floors of the castle to become ice. Terrified, she tried to melt the ice, but it only spread.
Kristoff tried to hold Anna steady, but he slipped himself, and Anna wobbled on the slippery ice, trying not to fall. In another attempt to melt the ice, Elsa sent a wave of ice flying across the study, causing Anna to be knocked to the hard, icy ground.
Kristoff scrambled to his feet, and tried to help Anna to her feet, but she was out cold. He looked up, and saw Elsa, who was horrified at what she had done, and was slipping on the ice trying to get to her sister. He looked back to Anna, and saw a small stream of blood trickling down her forehead, and desperately, he called to her.
"Anna! Anna! Wake up!"
He picked her up gently, and walked quickly out of the study, trying his best not to slip on the icy floors of the castle. He laid her in her bed, which had not frozen over, and ordered a servant to get the doctor. Carefully, he checked on his infant son, making sure not to wake him up.
There was a knock at the door, and Kristoff turned to see Elsa, still mortified at her sister's state. She walked up to her sister, but Kristoff cut her off at the bedside.
"Look, Elsa, I know you're concerned about Anna, but I just think it'd be best if––"
Elsa looked into Kristoff's eyes, which were full of regret about what he had said. But the words he uttered continued to echo in Elsa's head.
Everything you do is an accident...
Everything you do is an accident...
Everything you do is an accident...
"You think I'm a monster too," Elsa whispered.
"No! It's not that at all! Elsa, I didn't mean what I said earlier."
Elsa cried out in agony. "Even you think I'm a monster!"
"Please, Elsa! It was wrong of me to say that. I was terrified that you would even think of trying to hurt any of us."
"You know I didn't mean to!"
"But it was my nature to protect my family."
"Well, she was my family before she was yours! You didn't even have a family without her!" Elsa cried, more and more anger rising above her painful tone.
Suddenly, before he could say anything more, Joseff appeared at the doorway, the doctor beside him.
"Joseff!" Kristoff cried. "Where on earth have you been?"
"Doesn't matter," he replied. "But I heard about Mama. Is she okay?"
The doctor pushed past Joseff. "We'll see. Is she still unconscious?"
Kristoff nodded gravely. "She's still breathing," he said, trying to make himself feel better.
"Well, that's the first step," the doctor remarked with a chuckle, and studied Anna's head. After a few painful moments, he looked up at the three royals. "I've inspected the injury, and as far as I can tell, she's suffered a minor concussion. No major damage to the brain or the skull, and she'll heal in a few days, tops. If she suffers from migraines or hasn't awoken by tomorrow, call for me, and I'll check her again."
"Thank you," Elsa whispered, and looking to Anna, she shook her head. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Anna."
Kristoff put a hand on her shoulder. "See? She'll be fine. Look, I'm really sorry about––"
"Don't you think for a moment that you're excused from what you said!" Elsa cried. "You called me an accident waiting to happen! You think I'm a monster, just like everyone else."
Kristoff buried his face in his hands. "Elsa, come on. If I had lost my temper with Anna, and say, I hit her, wouldn't you have been ticked off at me? You would have called me a brute and a murderous man, just like the people in the Southern Isles are calling me."
Elsa nodded. "I suppose you're right," she said. "But still. You killed Hans. And you did so purposefully."
"He endangered my family one too many times!"
"But you killed him! You were just as bad as he was in that moment!"
You're... just... like... me...
You're... just... like... me...
You're... just... like... me...
Kristoff knocked over a lamp, smashing to the ground, which was still somewhat slippery from Elsa's outburst. "Don't remind me of my shortcomings!" he shouted.
"Papa, please! You'll wake Hans!" Joseff cried.
Though he seethed with anger toward his sister-in-law, Kristoff calmed himself for his sons' sake. As if she had been waiting there the entire time, the head servant, Gerda, knocked quietly on the door.
"Dinner is ready," she murmured. "Has Princess Anna awoken yet?"
Kristoff sighed and shook his head. "No, she hasn't. We'll be right there, Gerda. Thanks."
