Chapter 7 – Epilogue and Ending

Once back at the palace, they were all whisked off to have their injuries seen to. Anna was the worse injured because he back was begin to redden and sweat because of the burns she had received from Hans. Kristoff and Elsa had just cuts and bruises that just needed washing and bandaging. Anna was given privacy under her own request while the palace staff tried to find something to sooth the pain of her back now her adrenaline had worn off so Kristoff and Elsa went to sit in the garden because they couldn't stand to hear Anna's grunts of pain that echoed all over the palace.

Morning was starting to break when the two went to sit on in the garden and they found Marshmallow sat on the lawn, appearing to be lost in thought. Concerned, Elsa walked up to him and put a hand on his arm and gave him her warmest smile she could muster.

"Hello Mother" he said absently.

"Is there something wrong, Marshmallow?" said Elsa who was taking notice of how Marshmallow has his arms crossed to hide his hands.

"I'm just… troubled is all; I never killed anything before today" he sighed while uncrossing his arms to show the blood that still stained his fingers.

"Oh" Elsa said morosely "I know it can be hard, but remember you did it in defence of not just me, not just Anna, but all of Arendelle"

"But did you see the people? They went silent when they saw me and I heard people in the crowd gasping when they saw the blood on my hands. They think me a monster, Mother"

Because Marshmallow hadn't left the mountain since he was created it had been the first time many people of the kingdom had seen Marshmallow as he walked with Elsa and the others back the palace. Elsa had never told the people or Arendelle of Marshmallow's existence because she didn't think anyone would need to know. She foreseen having to explain this with yet another public announcement where she'd have to tell how, yet again, she hadn't been entirely honest with her people and proceed to explain why. Elsa knew she couldn't do that too often without completely devaluing it.

"Yes, they do" Elsa sighed "Well they won't anymore. When I announce what happened on the mountain, I'll mention you and your brave service to Arendelle"

"Would that be enough?" Marshmallow asked quizzically.

"It will be the word of their Queen, they will have to listen" Elsa smiled.

"Thank you, Mother" said Marshmallow as he gently placed one of his massive arms around Elsa.

"You're welcome" said Elsa as she hugged his arm "Now let's get you cleaned up"

Elsa cast her magic and removed the blood that stained his fingers, returning them to flawless ice once more. She also addressed the damage to his body where bits of his snowy form had been chipped or clawed when he and Hans had clashed. After fixing him up, Elsa stood and gave Marshmallow a little wave before moving to sit back with Kristoff.

"Thank you for looking after my sister. Understand that we'll replace your shack" Elsa said with a smile.

"Thank you, Elsa… I mean, Your Majesty" Kristoff said quickly correcting himself.

"Kristoff, please, you can call me Elsa, you've been too great an asset to my kingdom to need to address me so formally"

"Sorry, I just thought that because I was no longer dating Anna, it wouldn't be right" said Kristoff with a sheepish smile.

Elsa felt a pang of guilt at what Kristoff had just said; while she loved how she had Anna to herself, she still felt bad that the Ice Man had no one for his own. Hopefully he had moved on and would meet someone new but Elsa knew herself that Anna was a hard one to forget. An awkward silence settled over the pair as neither could think of what to say. Luckily, Olaf stepped in to help by chasing Isen across the garden, much to her protest.

"Olaf!" Elsa shouted sternly "Stop chasing your sister, she'd not a butterfly!" Olaf stopped and sulkily plodded off, kicking the grass while Marshmallow looked on with a silent chuckle.

"Sister?" Kristoff said confused.

"Yes, they all consider me their mother. I was at first against it but now I don't see the harm" Elsa said with a smile "Gives them a family and sense of belonging"

Kristoff merely smiled back and the pair sat in silence and enjoyed the ever brightening morning. Anna then hobbled out of the doors that led to the garden. She was wearing a silk nightgown so she wouldn't have any weight on the burns on her back that were bandaged completely over making Anna look like a mummy around her neck line.

"Could I speak to Kristoff, please? Alone." Anna asked when she reached the table.

"Erm, ok…" Elsa said confused, thinking that Anna would want to speak to Elsa first.

Elsa stood up and beckoned her snow children to follow her. They went up to the top end of the garden and began having a snow ball fight; Olaf and Elsa vs. Marshmallow and Isen. Elsa conjured two snow banks, one for each team, making Marshmallow's and Isen's pile a lot bigger because Elsa had the advantage of being able to generate more snow. The fight began but it was more of a fight between Elsa and Marshmallow because Olaf's throwing arm was weak and Isen had no way to through snowballs.

Anna smiled as she watched Elsa frolic, so happy that Elsa was so much freer now. But she then signed and turned to Kristoff, regretful of what she had to bring up with him.

"Kristoff… we need to talk about the ice sculptures"

"Ok, listen, I'm so sorry, that was completely in appropriate, I won't make any attempt to replace them when you get me a new shack and…"

"Kristoff!" Anna said impatiently to stop his rambling "I'm not angry. I'm sad, Kristoff, sad that you couldn't move on. I love you, Kristoff, but I loved someone else more and my heart was destined for them"

"Yes, but who is this other? I haven't seen you with anyone else since we broke up!" said Kristoff angrily "Excuse me if I find it hard to believe you Anna and think you're just trying to spare my feelings"

Anna sighed "Ok, I suppose you deserve the truth" Anna said with a heavy sigh "The other is Elsa"

"Oh, well I suppose that could be true. You are sisters who spent so much time apart that you're naturally going to want to spend as much time together and that…"

"No, not exactly as sisters…" Anna said hesitantly "More like…"

"Oh" said Kristoff fully understanding "Well then, that's ok then" he said with genuinely warm smile.

"You're ok with this?" Anna said stunned.

"Listen, I know it's not normal; to love one's sister like that but the trolls taught me that love is simply making someone else happy and if you and Elsa can do that for each other, I'm more than happy for you!"

"Ok, wow, that went easier than expected" said Anna, hoping this wasn't a dream that she was having after passing out from pain "But I want you to promise you'll move on, find someone new"

"Ok Anna" said Kristoff with a smile "I will. I'll be honest, I couldn't move on because I couldn't be sure you were happy because I didn't know who had replaced me but now I know its Elsa, I know you'll be happy"

"Thank you Kristoff, for not only understanding, but also being a true friend"

Kristoff simply smiled and stood up offering Anna a friendly hug that she gladly accepted until the sting of her back proved too much and she had to let go.

"Want to go join the snowball fight?" Kristoff said motioning towards it.

"I can barely move, Kristoff!" Anna said impatiently.

"Oh yeah… well do you mind if I go?" he said innocently.

"Ok" she said with a chuckle "just said Isen over here to keep me company"

"Won't she mind?" Kristoff said as he ran out into the garden

"I don't think so" Anna called back as she pointed to a poor and frightened Isen who was just about dodging every snowball launched at her.

"Oh yeah" Kristoff said in agreement "Ok, will do"

When Kristoff joined the fight, things had become one sides in Elsa's favour; Olaf had figured out he could stuff his mouth with snow and spit of snowballs at a rapid rate. Kristoff said he'd step in for Isen who gladly withdrew and flew over to where Anna sat and perched on her shoulder. The snowball fight resumed and Anna and Isen watched. Anna welcomed Isen's presence on her shoulder because she could feel the cold radiating from her tail as it swished back and forth over her back, giving her some much needed, and cooling relief.

Anna was glad everything was over. She tried focus on the snowball fight but the events of last night, her injuries and the fact she hadn't slept proved too much and she fell asleep before she knew the outcome.


A few weeks later

Since Hans's defeat, the kingdom of Arendelle was in a state of unrest. While the people had still been in shock for a while after Elsa had thawed Arendelle; that had been due to uncertainty over whether they could trust Elsa and her powers and coming to understand why she had done the things she had done. But the attack by Hans had shaken then far worse.

Elsa's winter had been great period of hardship but it had lasted such a short amount of time that the people of Arendelle really hadn't had chance to suffer before things reverted to normal. But with Hans turning into a dragon, the people of Arendelle had felt under threat from a far more immediate danger. While he hadn't attacked the town, just seeing him fly across the night sky was enough to scare everyone and make them doubt their safety. While Elsa and Anna had defeated Hans, people knew of Hans's previous defeat so wondered if his lack of ability played into his demise and if the supposed champions of their kingdom could perhaps handle a real dragon.

Elsa was currently holding a meeting with people from the kingdom who wanted a guarantee that the kingdom was still safe but it wasn't going well. People were angry that such a thing had happened and were saying that after Hans was exiled that Arendelle should have hunted him down to keep an eye on him but Elsa pleaded with them to be rational and realise that they didn't have the authority to do such things.

As the meeting just descended into angry shouting, Anna excused herself and went outside into the garden. She walked around a bit and felt anger begin to boil away inside herself when she thought back on Hans and how he had ruined the perfect balance Elsa had achieved with her people. They had started to stop fearing her but now they feared something new, something that was hard to reassure against. She went to walk back just as she heard the meeting explode into loud shouting once again and Anna grimaced about going back. She felt sorry for Elsa who couldn't leave because of duty but she didn't want to be with people who were so angry and vile tempered. Anna hesitated for a moment before walking from the palace grounds to go take a walk to clear her head.

She didn't know where she was going; she found herself walking up the North Mountain and through the woods that were spread across most of its face. It was only midday so Anna wasn't worried about getting lost; as long as it was still light, she would still be able to see the town and walk towards it should get lost.

She continued to walk until she happened upon the clearing where they had defeated Hans. No one owned the land or perhaps no one wanted to admit they owned it; none the less, no one had cleared the pile of ash that had formally been Hans, most likely thinking it to be cursed or tainted. Anna looked upon it with anger; why did he have to have revenge? Why couldn't he just move on and be happy he wasn't executed for his crimes. Anna anger began to build and quickly boiled over and in her rage she began kicking the ash pile to just get rid of some frustration.

She stopped after some flew into her face but when she looked back she saw a gleam of metal in the black and grey dust. She tentatively grabbed it and found it to be the handle of a sword; the same sword that she had stuck Hans through the heart with. Except this sword has strange etchings up the blade that looked like flames. Anna gave it a test swing and found the sword was perfectly weighted and would be great for fencing. She swung about, spinning it in her palm and rolling it over her wrist. Where did I learn to be so fancy with a sword, she thought.

She was about to place it back down when she felt strangely compelled to keep a hold of the blade. But Anna knew Elsa would probably tell her to get rid of it. No, Anna thought, I must hide it from her. Anna looked shiftily back and forth before walking from the clearing, making sure to keep the sword behind her back. Once back at the palace, she found some old rags and wrapped the sword in it and hid it under her bed. She was just about to leave when Elsa came to her door.

"There you are!" Elsa gasped before running over to hug Anna "You've been gone for three hours! Thanks for leaving me to the mercy of the towns people, my so called Protector"

Elsa was being playful obviously but noticed as she held Anna at arm's length how sternly Anna looked back at her.

"Is everything ok?" Elsa said concerned.

"I am fine, Elsa" snapped Anna, shrugging off Elsa's grip "Just leave me alone"

"…as you wish Anna" Elsa said worried as Anna stormed out.

Elsa was very concerned; when she had hugged Anna just, Anna hadn't hugged her back. Elsa could tease Anna to the point where she had lost her temper at her but Anna would always return a hug if offered one. Also, Elsa couldn't put her finger on it, but Anna had felt different, colder than she usually was and a lot more angry. Elsa thought nothing of it though; they were all very stressed in light of recent events, Elsa just hoped Anna could shake these blues soon.

Only problem was that it was more than mere blues that had arrested Anna's mind.


And that's the end folks! Well that's the end of this story at least. I have a sequel planned so stay tuned for that! I also have a bonus frick frack chapter planned but I will be posting that as a separate story because I don't want anyone who doesn't want to read it to read it by accident.

I'd first of all like to thank all those who followed this story and all those who have read it! Thank you to ImpossibleClara9 especially for your continued love and thank you to ProbablyDisney for your love and for coming to me for writing advice! And also thank you aeavy for being so lovely as well! And an additional shout out to Syaoron Li Clow who has only read up to chapter 4 at the time I write this amendment but who has been leaving lovely reviews each chapter that I am truly thankful for.

This is my first fic ever and it's taught me a lot about where I need to improve.

I have a lot of stories planned but I wonder when I'll be able to do them. I have one involving superheroes and crossovers, another where the Elsa and Anna are estranged but meet up for the first time in forever (it'll kind of "Day in the Life of…" style) and a one shot that came to me when I couldn't sleep that is kind of… weird. But that last one might not see the light of day; it's supposed to be funny but I don't know if it is yet.

Anyways, thank you again and stay beautiful! And remember… butts are lovely and Crème Brûlée is an absolute good!