Chapter 2: Long road ahead

The grandfather clock chimed one startling Elsa from her sleep. She had been pouring over documents for hours and had lost track of time, being royal was taking its toll, on top of her normal duties there was to be a festival in one months' time celebrating her first year as queen. Elsa thought it was unnecessary but the small council and particularly Anna had insisted. She resolved to retire to her chambers for the night knowing there was no way she'd be able to accomplish anything else. As she walked down the hallway towards her bedroom she spotted Anna wondering the halls.

"Anna?" She called out confused as to why her sister would be up so late.

The strawberry blonde turned to face her older sister, she had a mischievous grin on her face as she came bouncing towards her cheerful as always.

"Elsa! I was hoping I'd run into you, I haven't seen you all day!" She proclaimed excitedly.

"Sorry I was in council meetings all day."

"Oh… how'd that go?" Anna asked inquisitively.

Elsa sighed heavily, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. "The Southern Isles still refuse to reopen trade, we finally received word from King Fredrick who politely declined our offer." She replied sharply adding venom to the word politely.

"I say forget them, you remember what happened with Hans…"

Elsa cut her off abruptly. "The Southern Isles count for nearly a third of all our trade, without them all we have left is Corona and the Eastern Isles."

Anna stared down at her feet. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." She said quietly, her smile quickly disappearing.

Elsa went to put a comforting arm around her sister, both of them had been trying very hard over the past year to rekindle their relationship, and that was only made harder by Elsa's duties as queen and Anna's marriage to Kristoff.

"Don't worry about it Anna." She said soothingly. "Now I know you wouldn't be up this late to discuss politics, what're you doing up?" Anna immediately donned an eat-shit grin as she looked up at her sister.

"Well you know how the other week I had that stomach flu?"

"Yes I remember that, why?" Elsa asked studying the strange behavior in her sister.

"Well it wasn't stomach flu… it was morning sickness." The younger girl said cheerfully.

Elsa took a moment to process what her sister meant, morning sickness? Don't you get that if you're pregna… Her thoughts suddenly stopped, she stared at her beaming sister mouth agape.

"Anna are you trying to tell me…?"

"The doctor confirmed that I'm two months along." Anna chimed in. Tears had begun to pool in Elsa's eyes, she looked at her sister in bewilderment as happiness began swell inside herself.

"You're pregnant!" She cried bringing Anna into a deep embrace, she silently sobbed into her sister's shoulder overjoyed at the news.

"You're gonna be an aunt." Anna whispered softly into Elsa's ear. Elsa straightened herself up and brushed the tears away, all poise and formality had left her.

"And you're gonna be a mom." She retaliated happily clutching her sister's hands. As they made eye contact Anna gazed into Elsa's sparkling blue eyes, they radiated pure joy as they shared the loving uninterrupted moment, both of them had not felt this close since the great thaw.

"Now we have to work on getting a little bun inside of you." Anna joked playfully.

Elsa laughed despite her feelings towards marriage. "Anna I'm not even courting anyone." She said trying to dismiss the subject.

"What about that Prince Daniel from the Eastern Isles? He was quite handsome." Anna suggested.

"Yeah, and equally arrogant and conceited." Elsa replied rolling her eyes.

"Well don't worry, seven months is plenty of time to find you a man." Elsa's joy had disappeared she looked at her overly-optimistic sister in disbelief.

"Anna no man wants me." She whispered miserably.

Anna's jaw dropped unable to believe what her sister just said. "Elsa you can't be serious, you're beautiful inside and out, you'd make just as good wife and mother as you are queen."

Elsa began to cry at those words, she had seen nine suitors in the past year but any who stayed for long were quickly driven off by her powers. Many people were still terrified of her powers. There were many citizens who would give her stares or immediately leave when they saw her in public, on several occasions she had heard them whispering monster, or witch.

"Anna no one wants to be romantically involved with someone who can freeze them solid."

"But you've done so well, you've made great improvements on controlling them…" Anna protested.

"It doesn't matter Anna, my own people are still afraid of me, there are protest groups that want me removed from the throne! No man would be stupid enough to want to be with me!" With those final words Elsa had completely broken down, she collapsed to the floor sobbing uncontrollably, frost had gradually begun to spread underneath her.

Anna rushed to comfort her holding her sister in a deep embrace, she lightly brushed her fingers through Elsa's platinum blonde hair trying to calm her. "Shhh, it's okay, I'm so sorry." Anna soothed.

"I-I'm just so afraid. What if I hurt someone? What if I hurt my child? What if I hurt your child?! I wouldn't be able to live with myself." She sobbing into Anna's shoulder.

"That won't happen Elsa." She reassured. "I know it won't"

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The sleigh had come to a grinding stop outside of Oaken's, Sven looked eagerly to Kristoff hoping for a carrot but he didn't have time. He had to get Alexander inside before he froze to death. He leaned heavily on Kristoff's for support, despite being wrapped in extra furs he was still freezing, and was very weak from his injuries.

"Easy buddy we're almost there." Kristoff said reassuringly. Using his free arm he opened to door into Oaken's, it was a quaint little shop with basic supplies for every-day needs, a large bearded Swedish man sat at the till.

"Yoo-hoo! Big spring blowout…" He chimed in a thick accent but Kristoff quickly cut him off.

"This man fell through the ice we need to get him warm!"

"Oh dear!" Piped Oaken, immediately springing into action."Quickly bring him to da back room." He ordered practically carrying Alexander to the back room.

Inside there was a small cot, a nightstand, and thankfully fireplace blazing in the corner, this was probably Oaken's personal quarters Kristoff thought to himself.

"I'll be wight back with an extwa blanket, ya!"

Once Oaken had left Kristoff looked suspiciously at his unexpected companion as he began placing several odd items from a carrying case on the nightstand. He had several curious looking pouches containing what appeared to be an assortment of ingredients, he then placed a burner with a small cauldron, a mortar and pestol, a spiraled tube with a funnel, and lastly the jade flask he had seen earlier strapped to his belt.

Before Kristoff could ask the man he spoke up. "I need you to get me a few things, I'll explain in a minute but it's of vital importance I have them." He insisted quickly scribbling down a short list of items.

After a few moments he handed the parchment to Kristoff who stared at it in confusion. "Sunflower oil?" He read aloud. "Jarin root, dried barley, glowing mushroom? What the hell is this?!" Kristoff demanded.

"I'll explain in a minute." He replied while lighting the burner." But right now I need those items." With those last words he pressed two gold coins into Kristoff's hand, all he could do was walk out of the room in confusion.

Looking down at the list Kristoff contemplated leaving with the gold, he had seen many men produce drugs at campsites. Ice harvesting was brutal work and some men had alternative methods of relief, however in all his years he had never seen anything like this. This was all too strange, he had to know this man's story, he had told Kristoff of his encounter with Marshmallow but there was simply no way he could have survived the fall. Determined to uncover the truth he reluctantly handed the list to Oaken who surprisingly produced all the items from behind the counter. Kristoff was amazed, he had never even heard of jarin roots and glowing mushrooms and yet Oaken had placed them on the counter like they were ordinary shopping essentials.

"Dat will be eighty." Kristoff looked at the two gold coins in bewilderment, he thought Alexander had given him way too much cash but apparently it was just enough.

"Eighty for this?!" He cried out in shock.

"Some of these items are vewy rare, but for you my friend I make it seventy, ya?"

It wasn't his money anyways so there was no point in bartering with the large Swedish man, he handed Oaken the two gold coins who exchanged him for three silver ones. Kristoff brought the odd assortment of ingredients back to the room where he saw Alexander sitting on the bedside topless; grinding ingredients with a mortar and pestol.

Upon examining the man he saw that he was pure muscle, he had never seen a man so fit in his life, his torso was also laced with scars. There was a fine assortment of large and small ones, straight and jagged, but the one that stood out the most was a grisly looking scar in the center of his chest. It was thick and ridged and about five inches long, the scar tissue was blackened and there were dark veins protruding from around the wound. Overall it looked toxic and corroded and is he were poisoned, but the wound was clearly old which made Kristoff wonder what had caused that.

When he had finally finished grinding his concoction he looked up to face Kristoff. "Ah excellent you got everything!" He said gleefully quickly removing the items from Kristoff's hand and resumed his work. Kristoff watched in fascination as he cored the mushroom and squeezed the blue juice into the cauldron, his hands worked like clockwork as he then began adding the sunflower oil and the various dry ingredients.

"Here I have your change…" He said handing over the three silver coins.

"Keep it, I owe you that and much more." Kristoff pocketed the change as Alexander continued working, the contents of the cauldron had been brought to a boil and he was carefully mixing it with a stir-stick.

"So what are you a dealer or something?" Kristoff asked. "Hardly." He chuckled.

"I'm merely producing a home remedy known as estus. This will heal most ailments, wounds, and eliminate toxins."

Kristoff looked at him in disbelief, there was no such medicine capable of doing all that. "Well you don't need that to fight hypothermia." Alexander chuckled and grimaced as he placed a hand on his ribcage, it was then Kristoff realized his ribs were heavily bruised, he hadn't even noticed with all the scars.

"I have two broken ribs, I wouldn't allow a stranger to see my process unless it was urgent."

This man was out of his mind, he needed a doctor and rest, there was no way liquefied mushrooms would mend his ribs. He had seemed to read his mind. "You don't believe me? I wouldn't blame you." He said straining the now golden liquid into the funnel.

He discarded the pulp and watched as the liquid flowed into the open flask, not wasting any of it he shook the tube to collect the last few drops. "Cheers." He said taking a small sip from the flask. Kristoff watched dumbfounded as the color returned to his skin almost instantly, Alexander seemed to glow from the warmth that had flooded his body. The large angry bruises slowly began to fade and he heard a slight crack as his ribs knit back together. What shocked him most of all is the blackened scar in the middle of his chest faded to a neutral skin tone, also the veins that were previously protruding from his skin were no longer present.

Kristoff's mouth hung open as Alexander began to dress, the same man who was dying mere minutes ago was now in perfect health. A million questions flooded his mind but he found his mouth unable to work, having packed his belongings with incredible speed Alexander grabbed Kristoff's hand and placed six gold coins. This only added to his bewilderment, this was almost double what he made on a good run and this man had handed it to him like they were mere pennies. He then grabbed Kristoff firmly by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye with a penetrating stare.

"Look I know you must have many questions but I cannot answer them, for if I do it would not only endanger my life but yours as well." He said in an authoritative tone. "You never found me. You don't know my name. And you surely didn't see all this." He said indicating to the now bare nightstand. "Do you understand?" Kristoff could only nod, his brain was unable to process everything that was happening at the speed Alexander was delivering it to him.

"Good." And with that he stormed out of the room.

Kristoff stood there completely dumbfounded, the sudden sound of the front door open and slam shut quickly brought him back to his senses. With his adrenaline pumping Kristoff barrelled through the shore and flung the door wide open. Looking out into the darkness all he could see was his new sled with Sven hitched to it, still waiting patiently for his carrot.