Chapter 2

Elsa's heart felt like it stopped for a moment. Did I freeze this man during the war? Is he going to freeze like Anna did? "D-did I –"

"No." The man interrupted her as if he had read her mind. Elsa let out a small breath of relief. After all this time, she still had horrific images of Anna's face in her mind, lifeless, and frozen.

Anna, who looked like she'd seen a ghost, asked, "Who did freeze you then?" Elsa was not surprised however, that Anna had been able to read her mind. The man's face, which had still been unmoved and focused on Elsa, slowly turned towards Anna with a face like stone.

"Long story," he whispered. His mouth barely moved while he talked. His jaw moved just enough so he could mumble the words. He didn't seem to want to say anything he didn't need to. Elsa gave Anna a quizzical glance. If this man had been frozen like Anna had been, Anna would know how to make it better for the moment.

Anna saw her sister's expression and knew what she was asking. A smile flickered across Anna's mouth. She liked that her sister trusted her to know things she didn't. "Get him by a fire. We'll ask him some questions once he's warmed up a bit." The servant who had escorted them to the gates ran inside to start a fire. "Can you walk?" Anna remembered she'd had trouble walking during her final stages of freezing. She'd only seen her hands but this guy looked like he was going to turn into a popsicle any minute.

"Slowly," he replied in a deadpan tone. He started to move stiffly towards the castle. After a few steps that only got him about two feet closer, Elsa nodded to the guards and two of them lifted the man under each arm and started to carry him to the castle. Anna had to muffle a giggle at the sight of the stranger being carried. He looked like a puppy being carried by his parents. The sight was made even funnier by the stranger's expressionless face. Out of the corner of her eye, Anna saw a small smile on Elsa's lips and an amused glint in her eye.

After the guards lowered the man into an arm chair by the fire in the sitting room, the sisters sat in a couch opposite of the man.

"Can we have a name?" Elsa asked the stranger, whose eyes gradually trained themselves on hers. Elsa shifted in her seat. It was unnerving to have eyes that were so deep, yet so empty, stare so intensely into hers.

"Hendrik." Hendrik's hair seemed to glow white against the fire. Elsa studied him for a moment. He was actually in quite fine clothes, but they were messy and unkempt like he didn't care whether they were ruined or not. This irked Elsa. Why would he toss away such nice things so carelessly? His hair was messy too. It was short and looked like someone had tried to comb it but had given up because it was too stiff. The parts that stuck up looked like small icicles protruding from his head. Anna noticed this as well and had to muffle another giggle. The detail that really caught Elsa's eye was the pair thick leather gloves he wore. Is it possible that he…? Elsa pushed that thought to the back of her mind. That wouldn't matter if he was dying.

"Well Hendrik, can you tell us how you came to be in this state and where you're from?" Elsa watched for any sighs of fear or guilt in Hendrik's face but could find none. If this man was a criminal, he hid it well.

"Snow spirit. Flourensburg." He was still as a statue as he spoke with his gaze still trained on Elsa.

"Flourensburg?" Elsa tried to picture Flourensburg on a map.

"Snow spirit?" Anna asked in surprise at the same time.

Hendrik mumbled, "Yes." Anna's expression sunk into what clearly read Thank you for that incredibly useless and repetitive information Captain Obvious.

"Would you care to elaborate on that at all?" Anna asked sarcastically. Elsa shot her a swift glare. Anna retorted with a look of annoyance towards Hendrik. They were going to be there for hours at this rate.

"No," Hendrik replied, his eyes shifting to Anna's. It was Anna's turn to squirm under his stare.

Elsa looked taken aback. "No? Why not?" Her brow furrowed as she crossed her arms. How were they supposed to help this man if they didn't know what was wrong with him? Hendrik shifted in his seat to pull something out of his pocket. It was a folded piece of paper. He handed it to Elsa.

"What's this? An apology for being so annoying?" Anna asked skeptically. This guy was really starting to annoy her.

"Anna!" Elsa snapped. She couldn't believe how rude Anna could be to people she didn't know sometimes. Then again, with what Hans had tried to do to her, Elsa supposed she had a reason for doing so. Still, not everyone was Hans. Elsa took a small breath to recompose herself. "I apologize for my sister. She doesn't mean any offense." Elsa gave Anna a warning look to not say anything else. We will talk about this later, she seemed to say.

Anna glowered at her. You're not Mama. Quit acting like you are. This earned Anna another glare. Over the years they'd been back together, Anna and Elsa had learned to read each other so well that they were able to have silent conversations like this. What seemed like minute to them when they were having these silent discussions, actually only took a moment in the eyes of everyone else.

Elsa turned her attention back to the piece of paper in her hands. She unfolded it and saw it was a page Hendrik had written explaining his circumstances. It was in neat handwriting except in places where a word was scribbled out and replaced by a new one above.

The letter read: My name in Hendrik. I'm freezing to death and will probably die in a year. "Oh. Well then you're in any immediate danger. Can we finish questioning him later?" Anna requested. She was reading the letter over Elsa's shoulder.

"No." Elsa looked back at the letter. If I am showing this to you it's because I can barely move and need to easily explain to you why I need your help. Long ago, my brother and I accidently disturbed a snow spirit. As revenge, the snow spirit was going to cast an eternal winter over my kingdom, Flourensburg. My younger brother however, told the spirit to cast it on him instead. The spirit agreed to not cast it on Flourensburg, but cast the storm on me instead of my brother because it didn't want to give someone who had just disturbed her exactly what he wanted. She's a jerk like that. So now, I have an eternal storm inside of me that has been slowly freezing me that I need to get rid of before it kills me. I hope you are willing to help. It also has given me the power of ice. It's unpredictable. The only thing that helps so far is gloves. A more recent scrawl of words read, Queen of Arendale, you have ice powers. If you can't help, nobody can.

Elsa set the paper down. Her mind was a jumbled mass of excitement, fear, and wonder. He did have powers. He may only have them because of an angry snow spirit, but for the first time in her life, Elsa was looking at someone who might understand the fears and worries that came with such powers. Her present fear, however, was if she would be able to help Hendrik control his powers. She had gone through quite an ordeal before even beginning to master hers and wasn't sure how to teach someone how to master theirs. All of this because of a grumpy spirit. Could I meet this spirit? Could it tell me where my powers came from? Elsa wondered. Where her powers came from had been a question she had wondered since before the isolation. She supposed this would have to come after they tried to save Hendrik.

"Well," Elsa started slowly. She looked at Anna and an understanding passed between them. They would need to talk this over before anything was decided. "A long term stay will have to be discussed, but a room will be prepared for you for at least tonight. Bernard, prepare a guest room," she told a waiting servant.

"Yes, your majesty. Would you like me to show Sir Hendrik to his room now?" Bernard asked before leaving. Elsa looked back at Hendrik.

"Do you need anything else to eat tonight?" she asked.

"No." Hendrik started to get up and Bernard came to his side to help him up and out of the room. Anna and Elsa stayed seated. Once the door shut, Elsa whipped around to face her sister.

"Anna, why do have to be so rude to new people? Not everybody is going to hurt you like Hans! Think about Kristoff!" Elsa fumed. She hated being unorderly around people unless it was Kristoff or Anna.

"I don't know! Because I always feel like they might be like Hans! I'm never going to trust anybody else again without knowing them! And don't use Kristoff as an excuse because we were in a life and death situation together! You can't prove your worth much more than that!" Anna was breathing heavily from shouting, and was glowering at Elsa.

Elsa's anger simmered down, worry and shame took hold of her face. "I'm sorry." It broke her heart to see again how much Hans had hurt her sister and Elsa yelling at her wasn't helping anything. Elsa wasn't sure Anna would ever be as trusting again. Maybe it was for the better though.

Anna let out one more heavy breath and seemed to come to her senses. "I'm sorry too. It isn't right of me to assume everyone I meet is going to be like Hans. It's just, whenever I meet someone, it reminds me of what happened the last time I trusted someone without knowing them first. It also kinda makes me embarrassed and ashamed, and it's not right to take that out on other people." Anna hung her head with a sigh. "We've had some pretty messed up stuff happen to us. It's a wonder how we came out as well as we did even with mistakes."

Elsa laughed half-heartedly. It was just like Anna, wonderful, positive Anna, to turn a dark subject around into something positive and almost happy. "Yes, I suppose some messed up stuff has happen." And it all started with them. Elsa didn't like to think about them. She had very conflicting feelings about them even after all this time. Elsa shook her head to clear away all of the depressing and messed up stuff. "So, what do we do with this stranger?"

"Well, we're not monsters, and it seems like you're the only chance left he has to live so I don't know what else to do but help him."

Elsa nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I'll have to talk to the council though." Perhaps if she could help thaw him, Hendrik could also take her to see this spirit. Then maybe she could get some answers about where her powers came from.

"We have to help him first, before you even think about seeing the spirit," Anna retorted crossing her arms. Elsa looked up in shock. Sometimes it's helpful for your sister to know what you're thinking, and then sometimes it's downright annoying.

Elsa blushed and quickly babbled out, "I wasn't thinking about any such thing. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind."

"Mmhm, okay." Elsa sighed in resignation and annoyance. Anna laughed and the two sisters went down to dining hall for dinner.