Chapter 10:Prince Grant

Already to Chapter 10? Wow. Hope you like this one! (: Reviews are welcomed! Credit to Emmasdisneyworld on Tumblr for providing me with the names for Hans' brothers. (: (link: post/65683286581/the-princes-of-the-southern-isles-this-project) If I don't update before Easter, have a good one! Thank you for the continued support! P.S. I'm really not sorry for the "Let it Go" reference.

-Dee

They had been riding for a roughly three hours, and the knot in Queen Elsa's stomach had not been expelled.

"Let's take a break. There's a stream up ahead." a brother of Hans' voice carried from behind them. Elsa agreed.
It was three in the morning, and in about two hours the sun would rise. The trees gave them enough coverage, the heat, however, was a problem. Better than cold, Elsa guessed. These men were eerie of the winter for…obvious reasons. Lucky for her, no traces of sweat had drenched her blue trousers and low-cut long sleeve black shirt. The ice water in her had kept her cool, but for the other men, they looked like Hell.
Lowering herself from her horse, Verdani, she gave her a gentle pat at the side of her neck. Hans handed her a match-lit lantern and she cautiously made her way to the stream. The bushes crunched with difficulty, and moving through the air was like swimming in an ocean.
Kneeling before the stream, she sighed.
"Water," she cheered as she scooped handful of water in her hands.
She glanced over at Christian, who was unbuttoning his shirt while strolling towards her.
"What are you doing?" she backed away, chuckle of disbelief lingering in her throat.

"Cool me down." he commanded, a smug grin playing on his lips.

"I don't underst-"

He swiftly grabbed her ice hands and placed them on his chest. "Cool me down."

Elsa's eyebrow twitched up and then she finally understood. The ice water flowed from her fingertips onto his chest. A rather large spot of ice formed on his upper chest.
Elsa dared to look at his lower chest, a gritted gasp escaping her lips went she saw the bulky muscle.
To her surprise, when her gaze met his, he said nothing, but the grin he always had painted on his face was there once again.
Elsa looked around and saw numerous of the men unbuttoning their shirts. She felt heat rise in her cheeks.

"Would you do me the extraordinary favor, Your Majesty?" Christian's brother, Nikolaus, waltzed up to her, shirt unbuttoned.
Elsa realized that she was the only woman among these twenty-eight men. This made her nervous.
Soldier after soldier, Elsa awkwardly laid hands on their chests and oozed out a good-sized icy puddle. After she had gotten to everyone, she quickly sprang onto Verdani and struck Christian a look. They began on their way again.

That day, they had traveled sixteen miles with few stops for water or rest.
Elsa had iced countless men. When they desired her services while on horseback, they had caught up with her and she'd iced them, but not without difficulty. The horses' feet galloped on the ground, bouncing them in the thick air.

Rubbing the cool water over her hands and plunging them into a lake again, she looked up. The moon was neon yellow today, and it hurt to even think about looking up at it.
She had avoided Christian since she'd laid her hands on him. Shooting a glance at him, Elsa now noticed his rippling muscles were nearly busting out of his tight shirt. And the memory of the tight muscle on his lower stomach sent a fog to her head.
But she couldn't deny his persistence had struck a cord with her. His charm, protection, respect, and affection towards her had set a fire in her soul that she no longer knew how to contain. It started out so easy, being alone. She chose to be independent after she had been figured out. It was hard, but it was necessary, and although she had gotten her sister back, she still felt a longing for something more. An adventure? Maybe. Love? She prayed not.
The truth was that Queen Elsa had no idea what she wanted. She wanted to be individualistic, and had accepted loneliness at an early age. It was rough transitioning from a life of sadness and fear to a life of freedom and happiness. (Well, mostly happiness. As soon as they would find Rane, the resistance would be over and maybe then Elsa could begin to enjoy her life of liberty.)
Christian was annoying, awfully annoying. His constant flirtations, the never-ending scratching of his scruff, the overuse of his tongue while talking, the way he stalked when he was anxious. He was frustrating. The looks from afar and the feint smiles across the way were getting on her nerves.
And why, because she couldn't have him? By whose words? she would ask herself. Until she realized, that it was, in fact, hers.

"Mind if I sit here?" Elsa's voice towered over him.
The fire crackled and the moon glowed above. The sky had filled itself with shadow and began to echo with whispers. The Queen stood over him, heels lightly pressed into the dry lime green grass.

Hoping she didn't see him wince at her shoe choice he replied, "Of course."
Her foot stepped back suddenly, until Christian corrected himself. "…Not. Of course not is what I meant. My apologies."
He heard Elsa chuckle as she lowered herself to the ground. He longed to remain silent, but blurted out, "Why won't you let it go?"

"Let what go?"

"Let…yourself go." His eyes nailed to hers. Noticing she had bags under her sapphire pearls, his heart dropped.

"I guess…" her voice trailed before she reinforced its strength, "Can what I'm about to say be kept between us?"

"Of course." he followed her legs as they scooted her closer to the burning logs.

The crackle filled in the quiet again before she spoke with her head turned away, "I'm afraid of losing control. Of losing…you."
Christian's eyes widened for a split second, and he went nearer to the fire, but more importantly, to Elsa.
She glanced at the skinned animal roasting, and he could tell she was filled with gluttony.

"That won't happen." He finally told her.

"How do you know?"

"Because I do." The already sweltering heat and the fire worked overtime to create beads of sweat down his face.
Elsa remained quiet, watching the fire. She had taken off her makeup, her cheeks naturally rosy and lashes a light brown. Her eyelids were naked and her lips the color of the rich pink of a sunset.

"Did you come over here to talk or…?"
She shrugged, and leaned on her arm out by Christian's foot, lessening the gap between them.

"Will you warm me up?" Elsa's voice heightened.
He noticed she had slid her hand so that it was touching the bottom if his boot. Christian sat up straight, with legs already out and head cocked, he motioned a hand towards himself.
With much reservedness, she crab-walked backwards until she slam noisily into a thick log.

"Nice job, klutz." his voice shook a bit, but was able to cover it up with a husky laugh.
Elsa giggled through her nose and aggressively tore his arm up into the air, positioning herself under. Huddling as close as possible, she shivered.

"You're warm." She stated, a kind of siren in her words.

"Thanks." Christian laughed hesitantly. She took nap under his bicep before they ate dinner.

"Wakey-wakey, Elsie." Elsa's left eye flew open, not at all shocked to being tormented by Hans.

"Fuck off, Hans." She groaned, slamming back into a stiff pile of uncomfortable leaves.

"Ow," a sleepy voice sounded from beneath her.

"S-sorry," Elsa murmured, forgetting they'd swiftly fallen asleep together after dinner.
"I sense a Royal Proposal coming soon!" a voice taunted.
"How sweet."
"He always knew how to sniff out the good ones."

"Shut up," Christian pleaded, bicep folded over his face, trying to hide the red rushing to his cheeks.

Elsa flew up off the grass and dusted off her dress, "Good morning, gentlemen."

In unison, they groaned, "Good morning."

Elsa rolled her eyes, "I get it, it's morning. Cheer up, and let's get on with it."
Men stomped off, finding wood for a fire, armed with bows for a kill, and carrying pails for water.
Looking up at the light indigo sky, Elsa bit her lip, guessing it was around seven. An unsatisfying feeling settled over her head, dwelling there. Her stomach tied in knots, and not the good kind either. She wished she knew these men, she wished she could talk to them like family, she wanted a little break from the seriousness of questing; comic relief.
She missed Anna.

"Prince Grant!" She called.
The brunette swung around, wet hair mopped to his forehead. His dirty blonde beard wrapped around his face, and eyes, emerald green, squinted on Elsa.
She waved her hand, motioning him to go talk to her.

His tree trunk-sized legs carried him quickly to her, grey slacks stiff. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"I would like your help."

"With what?"

"Getting to know your men," she stated before correcting herself, "Your brothers."

Grant's eyes whitened, pupils shrinking, "Oh, it would be an honor, Queen Elsa."

A grateful smile covered her face, lashes batting involuntarily, "Tell me about someone."

He paused and bit his lip and then answered, "Robert. He's awfully arrogant and self-centered. He's twelfth in line, and gets the dark hair from our Grandmother. He has a girlfriend. She saved nearly the entire Kingdom's meat supply. She set up conservation projects and saved the deer population by forty-two percent. Now the deer make up most of the Southern Isles' forests. Robert plans to marry her. He doesn't know it yet, but he will propose to her someday."
She smiled at the thought of Robert finding happiness. She barely knew him, but she adored romance stories.
Grant vowed to tell her about somebody different in their family in return for stories about life in Arendelle.
This made Elsa feel better.

Grant had told her about everybody, "Klaus is next is line for the throne after our Father. Or course he wasn't happy about leaving but he'll do anything he can to please the King. He's very honest and kind, The Isles will be fortunate to have him rule after the passing of our Father. But he has a need to please everybody, which is a tragic flaw, I'm afraid. I fear he may not be the wisest choice for a King. He volunteered to protect Anna, being noble is another thing he is.

"Viktor is second in line, and is brutal, he had become close with the Kingdom's chief general at a young age. He is just, though. And has brought the Southern Isles many victories. He's stubborn, and often wishes he were alive during the vikings' time; that's why he's here. He loves the rich history and brutality of your ancestors. Anyway, he adores General Altair, however, this causes my Father to become angry. He wants Viktor to praise him and him only. Viktor has told my father many times of how he loves his father, but Father does not believe him. Their relationship's still kind of rocky.

"Nikolaus, third in line, is very smug. More smug than Christian, if you can believe. Very good at battles, he is. Very sly. This also makes him very good at creating pranks. He also volunteered to stay at the castle, but he helped us greatly with our travel and attack plans. Get him on your side before somebody else does. I have stories of his gags, but that's for another time.

"Fredbjørn The Loving, he is called. He's headstrong. Being a pacifist, he himself told us that it was almost unfathomable to think of coming here to attack. However Mother and Father demanded that he join us. Reluctantly, he got on the boat and stayed silent the entire trip. He began speaking again when we told him he could stay and protect Anna. Fred is fourth in line.

"Christian, who I'm sure you're aware of is fifth in line. When he was at home, he was selfish, a smartass. And…uh…"

"What? What is it?" Elsa begged.

Grant sighed, "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Alright…Christian is a ladies man. He's constantly with a woman. He can't go one day without being with one. But he's not a one-night stand kind of guy. He just had multiple lovers. Maybe a one-week kind of guy. But nonetheless, his real mother is probably Freyja. But Christian is genuine, he tells nothing but the truth, even if he's aware he's being brutally honest. I know about the looks he gives you. The doughy eyes and the red cheeks. He loves you, you know."

"I know."

"And you love him."

"I d-I…don't know yet," she stated avoiding the words, "Tell me more."

"Well, Alexander, also back at the castle…he is smart. Brilliant. While Hans(who was said to be the smartest) was away he decided to brush up on his history, arithmetic, mechanics, literature, natural science, religion, philosophy, everything. The bad side? He knows the skills, but how he puts them into use always turns out badly. He is not very fast, or strong, or graceful, but he has invented more weapons than you could imagine. As sixth in line I suppose you do anything you can to stand out.

"Back at the castle is Andrew. He's comical, I guess that's all you need to know about him. And that he's seventh in line.

"Damien and Derek are twins. They're inseparable, which explains why it was hard to convince them to come with us, so they're protecting the Princess. They wreck havoc almost everywhere. They can be useful in battle. But when one loses focus they throw just about any mission. Damien is eighth and Derek is ninth. They get along damn well, except for those titles. If you bring out up in front of them. They won't speak for days, fight or no fight.

"William is the tenth in line, and he won't say anything unless he has something to say. He's like the conscience of the boys, and is unbiased on everything. He has a great respect for the rules and, in my opinion, do better as Chief of Kingdom Security. I told him this, but he refused. He doesn't believe in going out and finding opportunities, he waits for them to find him. Hence why he's still back at the castle.

"Eleventh in line, Linus, is very funny. He makes everyone feel at ease. He smiles, he laughs, he jokes. He's the Kingdom's favorite, and he almost has no problems. His biggest problems, I've noticed, are the ones we think are the smallest. Like bed head, for example. The only bad thing is that he often has mental breakdowns and goes away for a while. He travels the world, but the Kingdom thinks he is off battling our enemies. He was forced to stay at the castle.

"And then there's Hans, whose thirteenth. I don't think I need to tell you about him."

What about you?"

"A man who describes himself never really tells the truth."
This left Elsa satisfied.