Hi, I have another chapter for you. I introduce another side character in this one, so let me know what you think of him.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights belong to proper owners.
-Whovian123
I have to get away, my mind is spinning and everything I touch is being coated with a fine web of ice. It is done now, I am engaged to Hans, the world knows it, and I can't take it back. Anna knows and will hate me for it. She will never understand why I had to do this. I do not understand why I had to do this.
As I charge through hallways and stumble around corners I feel my mother's golden necklace presses in to my heart, burning, reminding me, and telling me why I am doing this, why I have to do this. It lets me know that though what I may have to do is horrible I am doing it for my parents, and there is nothing I would not do to keep them alive.
Nothing.
The winter air takes the sharp edge away from my panic, though the chill may be caused by me rather than the season. I burst out of the castle and stumble out into the grounds. My shoes are digging in to my feet; the heels are far too high and impossible to balance on in my current deteriorated state of mind.
It is raining, stinging droplets pummel me over and over, making my face damp and mixing with the tears I cannot hold back; hiding them from me, allowing me to pretend I am not as weak as I know am. The cobble walkways are slick and my heels keep slipping into crevices sending me in odd directions and throwing me off course.
I have to leave, blundering my way through the castle gardens I realize that I cannot stay here. I have to leave. I already tried leaving once though. Flickering pictures of my coronation pepper my vision. I ran then and got nowhere exceedingly fast. This time is different though, I am not trying to run from myself, and there is a clear villain. I need to escape from Hans.
It is not raining any more, but snowing with a rather fierce wind. I try to stop it, to give the weather back to Mother Nature, whom is far more qualified to control it, but I am already far to lost. My hair is whipping around, getting caught in my mouth and in my eyes. I am an utter mess. Then something runs in to my chest right as i feel my powers pushing in to the open air in a violent crescendo.
I feel my head connect with the ice glazed ground and my vision blurs for a moment. As the world around me comes back into focus I see two large blue eyes hovering above my face, observing me. My cheek is now wet, with what feels like slobber, and I hear a distinct panting sound in my right ear. A dog, what is a dog doing here?
"Olaf!" A voice calls from around a rather tall hedge, which has been frozen solid by the halo of rime spreading out from my fallen body. Olaf? Was the dog called Olaf? "Are you ok? Olaf isn't usually like this." The voice explains as the owner runs in to view; the voice in question belongs to a young man with bedraggled hair and stubble. Stubble and hair which I recognize from the crowded ballroom, I had caught but a brief glimpse of him before he was swept away from the crowd earlier in the night.
"I am fine." My voice is strained and false. I am not fine, not even close, but telling a stranger that would end with bruises, and dead parents. The man, whom is pulling his excited dog off from on top of me, has no identification on his clothing, no badges of war, or crests of any kind. He wears a simple tunic and loose linen pants, not the garb for a party, but his body language suggests he is not the kind to care. His posture is proper with his shoulders sitting square, but not in a way that looks intentional. It seems effortless and second nature as opposed to the forced straight, shoulders pushed back posture of the royalty strutting around my ballroom.
Stubble offers me a hand, which I ignore, and then watches me struggle back to my feet with confused eyes. "You must be the Queen, if I am not mistaken." Stubble deduces while waving a hand at the frosty quality everything in the garden has taken up.
I offer a brief nod and then make to turn away.
"You don't look too thrilled for someone who just got engaged to a handsome prince." Stubble offers the comment with a perceiving sense that gives me pause.
"What makes you think that?"
"Mainly the little ice meltdown you were having. It didn't look the kind of thing that a happy woman would do."
"I get jittery around lots of people." I defend myself, anger tainting the edges of my words.
"It's not that you feel jittery, it's that you don't feel safe." Stubble explains while scratching behind Olaf's ears. The dog in question looks up at him with smart eyes.
"That's all very well but I really must be going." I decide while turning on my heel and heading back toward the party. The moments of clear thought while sprawled out on my ground reminded me of every reason I have to maintain my mask and follow through with the engagement. Why I cannot let my parents be killed.
Stubble strolls along beside me, content to follow me back to the party with his massive husky of a dog several paces behind him. Once at the high doors of the ballroom Stubble speaks out. "You have a dead leaf in your hair." He gestures to the top of my head. "Wouldn't want to ruin a good reputation with an awkward leaf."
"Thank you." I say as I reach up, wrench the leaf down, and throw it in to a potted plant sitting in a corner.
"You are most welcome."
"Please don't tell anyone what you saw out here."
"My word is yours."
With that final syllable I push open the heavy door and slip back in to the room undetected thanks to a rather animated story Hans appears to be telling to the crowded guests. The metal of my new engagement ring feels as if it has turned to lead, it pulls at my fingers and tugs my shoulder.
I clasp a glass of red wine between my hands, I prefer white, but I cannot manage to get my hands on any so red will have to do. Hans is finishing his story; a charming tale about the time he killed a wild bear to save a small child. I doubt the authenticity of it, but it will do me no good to question it.
Sipping the foul red liquid I try to quell the tremor racking through my body. I make to turn and walk away as Hans saunters his way towards me. "Elsa, sweetie, how are we?"
"Lovely." I respond as fast as I can, desperate to avoid the wrath of Hans. "Have you seen Anna?" The question is dangerous, but I cannot keep myself from asking, however with such a prominent crowd of eavesdroppers near us that I know Hans will err on the side of caution.
"She left after you, Kristoff ran off to find her." Han's explains in to my ear, his breath making me want to scream and run.
I doubt Anna will even tolerate being in the same room with me ever again, and to think, this morning I was being called the best sister ever. The things Anna must be thinking. I have to take it though, I have to let her hate me for her to get anything out of this situation. For her to have her parents back.
I feel guilty about having seen them. It was awful to have to see them that way, but at least I know they are more than skeletons at the bottom of the ocean. Anna does not have that peace of mind, or maybe it is me that lacks peace of mind. At least Anna gets to think their fate is no longer in limbo, and is instead complete and final. I go about my days worrying about what they may be undergoing and if Hans will be kind enough to grant them another day.
Hans places his hand on the small of my back with an oppressive pressure that lets me know if I pull a stunt like running out on him again he will hurt me in more ways than I can count. The pressure increases and I am being lead in to the fray of guests, my feet struggle to hold themselves in place, not wanting to move forward. I plaster on the most convincing smile I can and nod at all the right moments as Han's uses his false suavity and poise to charm everyone with whom he speaks.
"You too make the cutest couple." A woman, a princess by the clothes she is wearing, gushes at me.
"Thank you." Hans replies before I can even open my mouth to speak. "Also, I should mention, you are welcome back here in one month's time for our wedding." His voice rises as he begins addressing the room at large. "You are all invited to our wedding, one month from today."
The room erupts in to cheers, and I feel as though I am going to be sick. I am drowning, drowning in congratulations and well wishes, I hear everything around me with a muffled tone, and my chest feels as if it is being pressed upon by an invisible pressure. My legs refuse to support me, and as a result I am being held up by the grasp Hans has on my back, the grasp which is far too tight and much too aggressive.
"One month?" I hear a voice question airily, a voice that I feel a flicker of recognition for. "That doesn't give me enough time to leave." Stubble muses as he approaches me and Hans. He has donned a simple jacket, which I can only imagine someone demanded he put on to maintain civility.
"How so?" Hans asks with mild interest hiding in his voice.
"I live too far away, and the winter makes a hard journey harder." Stubble explains.
"Where do you live? I don't remember inviting you." Hans inquires rather bluntly.
"I was under the impression that Elsa invited me, and when I was invited this party hadn't yet been planned. I am from a rather new nation, well new to you, but very old to me and the citizens." Stubble explains with a knowing smile. "No one really bothered to see if anyone had made a home so far up north that half the year the sun shines, and the other half is does not."
"Interesting." Hans muses with derision.
"Guess which half is my favorite." Stubble adds with a rumbling chuckle.
"Who are you, exactly?" Hans voice snaps.
"Have I not yet introduced myself? Please pardon my manners sir; I am Prince Kasper of the North." Stubble, Kasper, announces his title and bows in an exaggerated sweeping motion.
"The North?" Hans questions. "There is no nation named as such."
"Only because we never thought to give our people a name, but I can assure you, the people of the North are just as hardy as you, and maybe more civilized."
"If you are anything to judge by I can only assume not." Hans says, letting his hand fall from my back and stepping toward the young prince in what can only be described as a display of dominance.
Kasper ignores Hans and looks to me. "I wouldn't like to miss the first royal wedding I am invited too, you know, networking and good impressions, so would it be to inconvenient for me to stay the full month here instead of trying to fit two impossible journeys in to so little time"
"Of course." I answer before Hans can reject the idea, having been given a feeling of rebelliousness with my back free of territorial hands.
"Also, I hope you don't have any policies against pets, because I have a rather large dog." Kasper adds, flashing me a quick smile and a wink in reference to the unconventional meeting I had with the dog, Olaf. It is only then do I notice the husky sitting behind his legs, watching the interaction as if he can understand the words we speak.
"Elsa." Hans says my name, and though it is innocent enough to the ears of others I know that it is a warning, telling me not to test him, not to go against him. I am being warned that my talking is over and that I will not be allowed to make any more decisions. "We do have a few extra rooms, but we wouldn't want to keep you from your family, or your people." Hans says, with a gracious smile that makes my skin crawl.
"My people will be fine, my mother and father rule their country very well, and I am far from first in line should something arise." Kasper explains, oblivious to the threats that lie in the corners of Hans's words.
"Well then, I hope you enjoy your time in Arendelle, our country has much to offer in the way of trade and leisure." Hans relents.
Our country, our country? How does Hans dare lay any claim to what I have worked my whole life for? I sacrificed my childhood trying to mold myself in to a monarch even close to what Arendelle deserves, and all Hans has done is threaten and torture. I spent countless hours before my quarantine perfecting my arithmetic, my literature, and my science knowledge; all hours I could have spent with Anna, or my parents, before I was sealed off from almost all human contact; but instead the were spent toiling away at a desk.
My hand clenches around the glass of red wine I am still sipping from and I see a rime web out from my fingertips. I should be fighting to stop it, desperate to keep the wine from forming a skin of burgundy ice, but I do not. I let the wine freeze through, I let the glass grow slick and I let a subtle chill ooze in to the air around me. Only when I feel an angry pressure on my back to I stop.
Hans has noticed, and he is not happy. My focus and control keep slipping and I cannot give Hans a reason to punish me, I cannot give him a reason to hurt my parents.
"Elsa, sweetie." Hans starts his voice sickly sweet and full of malice. "You don't look too well, maybe you should head to bed. I can manage the guests."
Nodding so fast my neck hurts I stumble out of the ballroom and in to the hallway. Kasper and Hans can continue their tense conversation without me. I need to be away from the constant rumble of so many people, I need to be away from the heat of so many people. Ice does not manage well with heat, and people give off so much of it.
So, whatcha think? Can I get a little feedback on Kasper, because as of now he crops up throughout the story a bit, and I would like to know if i did an ok job giving him character. So please read and review.
Also thank you too guest for your review. I can promise you a chapter a week.
-Whovian123