The moment Elsa heard the startled squawk through the trees, she halted what she was doing and took off in the direction of the campsite. She'd scouted the area before she'd left the unconscious girl there to go check the snares she'd placed the night before and she hadn't seen any signs of patrol activity. That combined with the fact that she hadn't placed the snares far from camp and she'd left the girl under the watchful eye of Marsh, well, she hadn't been too worried about wandering away for a few minutes to check her traps. Now, as she tore through the trees, she wondered if maybe she'd made a foolish error.

Slowing as she reached the edge of camp, she pulled her sword from its scabbard on her back and crept quietly through the brush. She paused when she was close enough, but still concealed, and surveyed the scene, searching for dangers, searching for whatever had pulled the startled cry from the redhead's lips.

And then she saw it and it made so much sense. Oh. Marsh.

She double-checked that there wasn't any other trouble lurking about before she stood and sheathed her sword. She stepped into camp and wandered over to stand near the girl's head. She crossed her arms. "Making friends?"

Anna's head tilted quickly back and she peered at Elsa with an alarmed expression. "Uh, help?" Anna was still lying on the bedroll Elsa had placed her on once she'd gotten the girl back to camp, she was still covered in the blanket Elsa had draped over her, and she was still more-or-less in the very same position Elsa had put in her in when she'd wrangled the unconscious girl's limp body into submission. The only real difference now was that standing directly over the girl, his four legs on either sides of her body, his long face hanging down over hers, his dark eyes observing her in a manner that Elsa would possibly classify as suspicious, was Marsh, Elsa's rather large, rather... eccentric horse.

Elsa bit back a smirk. "Stay still," she said to the girl before she walked over and took the horse by his bridle, carefully leading him forward and away from Anna. "I told you to watch over her, not stand over her and watch her," she chided the beast. Marsh snorted indignantly.

Anna pushed herself one-handedly into a sitting position, holding her injured arm tight to her chest. "You left your horse to watch me?"

"I wasn't far off, and I've found that Marsh is actually more capable than a great many men I've met over the years," Elsa replied, stroking his cheek. Marsh's coat was an exquisite pure white that only darkened around his muzzle, which turned from white to the color of soot with very little transition at all, and his feet, as all four of his hooves were black. His mane and tail fell in long, crimped waves. They were just as white as the rest of him at the top, but turned a light creamy color at the ends. His dark, almost-black eyes stuck out strikingly from all the white, like coal against snow.

"Wait. You have a horse."

Elsa brought her attention back around to Anna. "Yes," she answered.

"A big horse."

"Yes."

"A white horse."

"Yes."

"In the forest."

Elsa cocked an eyebrow and glanced around at the surrounding trees before bringing her gaze back to Anna. The look on her face clearly said, 'Duh.' "I assume you have a point in mind to round off this peculiar line of questioning?"

"Well, it's just... he's white."

"You already said that."

"Really white." What the girl was going on about, Elsa really had no clue. She shifted her weight impatiently and Anna seemed to pick up on the feelings behind the action because she immediately began to ramble.

"I'm just saying that I assume you aren't particularly friendly with the king's men considering you, uh... dispatched four of them to save me, and from what I heard, anyone who doesn't bow to the king and his men end up being..."

"Dispatched?" Elsa supplied dryly.

Anna swallowed and nodded. "Yes. Dispatched. So it would seem to me that if you're traveling the king's woods, you might try to find a, um... less conspicuous horse?"

The reference to the "king's woods" had Elsa suddenly stiffening. They were the king's woods, yes, but the wrong king. The rightful king had been murdered, butchered trying to save his kingdom. Following that, they should have become the queen's woods, but she had had to flee, leaving her lands, her woods, to the supplanter, to the defiler. He'd claimed rulership and so they remained the king's woods. Everything was just so very wrong.

Anna must have noticed the sudden darkness in Elsa's mood because the girl began floundering yet again.

"I-I don't mean to imply that you can't handle yourself, because obviously you can! Really. Anyone would be an absolute fool to attack you simply because your horse is so easy to spot. And besides, he'd be great in snow. Super inconspicuous!" She paused and cocked her head to the side slightly, studying Elsa. "In fact, you'd probably be great in snow, too." She blinked, then her face scrunched up slightly as if she were evaluating in her head the words she'd just spoken and was finding them distasteful. "Uh, in that your complexion and your light hair... are... light..."

Elsa cocked an eyebrow, rather unsure of what to make of the girl. Her rambling was odd, but also rather... endearing in a way.

Anna snapped her mouth shut with an audible click of the teeth. She twisted her lips to the side and pursed them there, glancing awkwardly around while worrying the edge of the blanket with her fingers.

Deciding to take pity on the redhead, Elsa held up the rabbit she had snared. "Are you hungry?"

The girl immediately perked up at that. "Starving." Then she paused a moment and frowned. "But... I should really return to my family. They will be worried."

Crouching down beside the fire, Elsa added some extra wood and stoked the flame until it was burning cheerily away before she went about skinning and gutting the rabbit. There were still moments when she found herself marveling at the fact that she even knew how to do such tasks. It didn't used to be that way. Life as a princess hadn't afforded her many opportunities in which to practice such skills. It wasn't until after she'd been made to flee the kingdom that she'd been forced to learn. Thankfully her tutor, the stable boy of all people, had been very patient in his teachings.

"Very likely true," she conceded, keeping her eyes on her task instead of looking at the girl as she spoke, "but then, you've already been gone for hours. It's unlikely that another half hour added to that will be all that damaging."

"Hours?"

The stomach-clenching tone in which the girl used had Elsa immediately bringing her attention around to her. Anna's eyes were large and round, her skin pale.

"What time is it?" she asked, glancing upward, eyes searching out the suns location.

"A little past midday," Elsa supplied.

"Midday?"

Elsa nodded.

"I was unconscious for that long? Why didn't you wake me?" Anna sounded almost frantic at this point and it made Elsa frown.

"You were injured. You needed rest." She stated in like it was obvious. "In fact, you still are and you still do."

"But my family!" Anna threw the blanket off of her legs and scrambled unsteadily to her feet. She wavered there and had to stand still to keep from toppling right over again. "You don't understand," she said, her voice strained. "It wasn't just me they attacked. It was the whole caravan." Her hands were starting to shake. "Papa– he told me to run, but the others–"

Elsa gave quick a nod, trying to stave off the girl's panic. "Alright, we'll go."

Anna did a double-take. "Wait, you're going to come with me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

The redhead frowned as if thoroughly perplexed. "Well, I just– I just thought..."

"Would it not be rather foolish of me to risk my life to save you from the king's men, then place even further time and energy into your well-being by tending to your injuries only to abandon all efforts right before seeing you to safety?" Perhaps 'safety' was a poor choice of words considering that it had been from that very 'safety' that the girl had run in the first place. Still, back with her family is where Anna needed to be and Elsa would see it through. Once Anna was with her people, the two of them would part ways and what would remain of their encounter would be nothing but a story to tell. Whether or not the girl would be safe afterwards, well, Elsa really didn't know, but that was just how it had to be.

"Well, when you put it that way..." Anna conceded.

Elsa nodded again. "Good," she said. "Let me finish packing and we'll leave." Anna glanced anxiously at the surrounding trees, no doubt desperately wishing to leave immediately, and Elsa understood. If it had been her family, she would have wanted to return to them as soon as possible as well. Still, most of the camp was packed up already and it would take but a few minutes to finish. It had been hours. Surely three or four more minutes wouldn't worsen matter all that much?

She turned her body to block Anna's view and flash-froze the rabbit for later, wrapping it back in its own fur. She stood, walking the short distance to Marsh and after double wrapping it in a piece of cloth, slipped the rabbit into one of the saddlebags. She rinsed her hands off with some water from her waterskin and wiped them quickly dry on a second piece of cloth. When she turned back to face Anna, the girl was crouching down trying to roll the blanket one-handed.

"Here, let me," Elsa said as she moved over to Anna, making quick work of rolling both the blanket and the bedroll.

"Sorry," Anna apologized, smiling sheepishly at Elsa. "I'm usually much more efficient at such tasks."

Elsa took the blanket and bedroll and strapped them down directly behind the saddle. "It's understandable," she said, feeling a peculiar need to assuage the redhead's chagrin. She even managed to cast a small smile in return over her shoulder at the girl, which actually startled her… a lot more than it seemed to startle Anna. In fact, Anna didn't really seem to be alarmed at all, but rather relieved. "Arrows through the shoulder do tend to hamper efficiency," Elsa added.

Wait. Had she just made a joke? She very nearly frowned at herself. She was never so familiar with people she just met… or really anyone. She was sarcastic with most people, when she felt there was a need for it, but she only ever joked with those few people closest to her and only ever in private.

Anna's smile grew large and she nodded. "Yes, I think I'd have to agree with you on that."

Elsa, still processing where her sudden bout of humor had come from, completely missed what Anna said and instead just blinked stupidly at her for a few moments. "Um…"

Anna just stared back, her smile shrinking little by little as the seconds passed.

Pulling instinctively from her royal upbringing, Elsa straightened her spine and adopted an regal expression. She glanced quickly (and as gracefully as possible) around to be sure she'd left no belongings behind. She saw nothing so she kicked some dirt on the fire and said, "We should probably go."

That sobered the redhead. She nodded. "Right. Yes. Let's."

Elsa grabbed Marsh's reins and with a returning nod, she lead the horse and the girl into the trees.


A/Ns: Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for their reviews/favs/follows! They certainly make a girl feel all a'giddy with happiness! Love you all!

Secondly, this chapter wasn't as long as the first one (nor was it all that exciting, lol), but I figured I'd rather get content out quicker in slightly shorter chapters than try to match or beat the word count of the first chapter and take forever. =D

OH! And one last thing. The next chapter will see the story changing from T to M (as I mentioned in the last chapter was going to happen). Just lettin' ya know!