I owe you all a huge apology and today I'm finishing this because I'm a terrible person and I owe you all cookies or something fantastic like that. On with the (SERIOUSLY) delayed story - thank you all ssososooososossosoososo much for your patience :)
Quickly, they rushed inside the palace, Jack pulled along with Dylan and Elsa. Dylan quickly yanked a sword from a nearby rack, turning to look over at Jack.
"You know how to fight, pretty-boy?" Dylan asked, grabbing another sword.
"Yes." Jack said, taking the sword from Dylan. "Although, I prefer something a bit colder, but…" His eyes rolled over to the sword, which had frost slowly growing up the side. "This'll have to do." He rushed forward with Dylan, as Elsa followed behind, her heels falling off as she ran. Strands fell loose from her braid, and frost appeared in tiny increments wherever she stepped. Although she was slightly scared, Elsa had to admit to herself that she was a little excited. This could give her an opportunity to use her powers as a force of good, defending her people. This would help those skeptical of her have a little faith in their queen.
As they ran towards the grand front doors, they found them open. Guards were pouring out from the gaping threshold, rushing into the courtyard to line up in a defensive formation. Elsa stood behind them, along with a few of the wedding guests. The rest, she assumed, had been ushered away, into the safety of the castle. Elsa could only hope that Anna and Kristoff were among the ones hidden.
Up ahead, she could here frantic shouting as guards placed themselves around the gates, shoving and pushing. There were periodic bursts of light, and Elsa stood confused for a moment.
That's when she realized they were pushing away from the gates. She immediately shot forward towards the bursts of light and the retreating guards. She pushed through the crowd, and when she finally made it halfway through, she realized why they were pushing back.
Fire was everywhere. Flashes of it, being flung through the air hitting the guards. The wooden portcullis that typically hung dutifully over the entrance to the courtyard was ablaze, and quickly disappearing. A guard shoved past her, holding a man who was cradling his burned arm to his chest like a baby. Anguished cries could be heard coming from the front lines. Dylan began to look hesitant, and pulled back, while Jack's typically mischievous gaze was ever so lightly tinged by something darker - fear. Elsa, at a lack for ideas, flicked her hand at the sky, snow falling down towards the hellish scene at the front of the crowd.
She grabbed Dylan's arm, and pulled him closer to the flames, Jack in tow behind them. Above them, thick snow clouds were dumping powder like buckets. As they made their way to the front of the lines she began to see people.
Throwing fire.
Yes, Elsa could not be mistaken - there were definitely people hurling flames. But how?
To the side of the crowds, a guard threw a bucket. Water sloshed out of the side slightly before it collided with one of the invaders. A dull thud filled the air at the contact of the bucket with the man's head, and water drenched his flaming body. He collapsed. The others with him turned and began to fire on the particular guard that had hurled the bucket, and began to fire. Snow swirled and popped, destroying the fire. The wind began to pick up, blowing the fire back into the faces of it's controllers. They seemed unbothered by this, simply letting the fire wash over them.
Elsa, thinking quickly, rushed forward, breaking free of Dylan's grasp. With a quick flick of her hand, ice shot out of her fingertips, cloaking the fallen fire-soldier in a sheet of ice. Instantly, fiery eyes flicked towards her, the flames ceasing momentarily. The army turned as a group, and a low rumble started as tendrils of fire began to form and lick at their hands, itching to escape. They slowly began to close in on her, the man covered in ice forgotten. Elsa shot ice out of her fingertips. A few hit their targets, and a soldier went down, his feet snared in an icy trap. One slip of ice froze mid-air and tore through a man's armor at his shoulder as if it were butter. He hissed in pain, eyes flashing and blazing brighter than the fire at his wrists. The other shards hit the soldiers' breastplates and melted promptly.
This ice barrage, had, at the least, slowed the front lines down enough that the guards were able to begin to fill and fling more buckets of water. Jack stepped forward, standing next to Elsa, sword long forgotten. As more soldiers went down, Elsa shot sheets of ice in their direction, sealing them in icy tombs - at least, for the moment. Jack assisted in this, and by the time they had pecked off nearly thirty men, the rest were looking sheepish. Quickly, the remaining fifty or so men grabbed who they could, pulling twenty men out, and hurried off with the frozen bodies slung over their shoulders. The rest of the bodies lay on the ground, as everyone stood, frozen, unsure of what to do.
"Your Majesty!" Came a voice from the crowd, pulling her back and turning her around. Elsa turned to face Rune Hansen, Captain of the Royal Guard, and one of her closer associates. "Queen Elsa, are you harmed? Why would you fight under these conditions?" His older face, filled with worry, looked her up and down.
"Thank you for your concern Rune," Elsa smiled, taking his hand into hers and patting it gently, "But I'm fine, thank you."
"You fought marvelously, your Highness." a voice came from a guard, and appreciative murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"And my sister?" Elsa asked nervously, as Dylan walked up to her left side and Jack stood icily on her right.
"Doing well, my Lady. Shall I fetch the wedding guests from the chambers?" Rune asked, turning to go.
"Yes, Rune. If Anna requests my presence, please tell her I've retired to my study for some research."
"Of course your ladyship. And what of Prince Maximus?" Rune asked, showing no signs that he heard the commotion earlier in the night. Elsa's heart skipped a beat. She had forgotten about Maximus. Her heart sunk in response, and her lips grew tight.
"Say nothing to him of my locations. I'll be in my study." Elsa said, her eyes icing over. She turned on bare feet, and walked inside the palace, managing to keep her cool as she shut the heavy mahogany doors of her office with a thud.
...
After flipping through three books, four journals, and countless notes, letters, and maps, Elsa still had found no reference of any fire people. Slamming the book shut and stuffing it back into it's shelf, she sank to the floor, letting out a sigh of frustration. Downstairs, the wedding party raged on. The men that had been frozen over and left behind, were, reportedly, taken down to the dungeons, and left on slabs of stone to thaw out. They were also chained and bound, and stuffed into stone rooms that were impenetrable and unescapable - by both ice and fire.
Elsa rubbed at her temples, fighting off a headache that had been growing and churning all night. A knock on the door sounded, and it opened without her permission. Expecting Anna, she remained on the floor head in her hands, surrounded by maps, notes, and letters. She was instead a bit shocked when her eyes met the stormy gray ones of Maximus.
"May I please explain, Elsa?" He asked, shutting the door gently behind him, sitting down next to her.
"Go ahead." She snarled.
"Lira is an ex-lover of mine." He began, hands folded calmly in his lap. No sign of guilt showed on his handsome face. "Emphasis on the "ex" part of that sentence. She was rather attached to me - too much so, at times. Even when I was with my own mother, she would become inconceivably jealous, so much so that she went so far as to yell at her once. I've had to break up many fights between her and several girls before, simply for them addressing me. I ended the relationship very shortly after it began - it never developed much farther than a beginning stage of a courtship. She was clearly severely intoxicated tonight, and acted on impulse." He stopped momentarily, studying Elsa's softening face. He continued, "I never intended her to act so outlandishly. I'm not even quite sure how she found me, I literally had her escorted and banished from my family's kingdom. And I also never intended on hurting you, and I'm sorry that it did."
Elsa sat, silent, playing with her hands. He took them up in his, looking into her eyes. "Forgive me, please?" He smiled.
Elsa tried to suppress her smile, but it shone through her mask. He laughed gently, bringing her face towards his and kissing her tenderly. "Now." She started, pulling him up with her, "I believe we have a wedding to attend."
...
After a few hours more of dancing and singing, Elsa couldn't have felt more relaxed. Kristoff had gotten the garter off of Anna. There were lots of laughs, but there was, thankfully, no biting. Olaf had finally been allotted his first drink of alcohol, and he was, as the saying goes, feeling no pain, despite being a snowman. He slid around the room, flirting with every eligible bachelorette - and, on occasion, bachelor. Dylan and Jack were talking in the corner, laughing as though he hadn't completely abandoned them all. Anna and Kristoff were actually getting prepared to head off to the palace's summer home for their two week honeymoon. The wedding, overall, had been a huge success - despite the entire palace almost burning down.
As Kristoff headed for the door, Anna called for the girls to gather for the bouquet toss. Elsa giggled, leaving Maximus where they had been dancing, to go stand alongside Dylan as he and a swarm of women gathered behind Anna. She turned around, laughed, as Dylan and Elsa exchanged glances and got prepared to grab the bouquet. She tossed the colorful flowers behind her. They arced gracefully, spinning ever so slightly, and headed right towards Elsa. She extended her arms for them, and caught them - only to have them bounce out of her hands and into someone's behind her. She heard throaty, rumbly laughter, and turned to see Jack cradling the bouquet in his arms.
"Well," he smirked, playfully looking up at her, "It's something like fate."
FINALLY THATS DONE OMIGOD UGH LET THE RELIEF FLOOD YOU MY CHILDREN.
Yeah sorry I'm sick and that does weird things to me.
Thank you sosososoosos much for reading and being so patient and fantastic. Just for a catch up - we're up to an ASTOUNDING 12,213 VIEWS. I never, in ALL my life, expected my writing to be seen so much and read and reviewed a FANTASTIC 86 TIMES AND FAVORITED 69 AND FOLLOWED BY 129 PEOPLE guys I seriously can't thank you all enough. If you did like this chapter, pleeease feel free to leave a review, as I would highly appreciate it.
I'm thinking, that as schools getting back into swing, that I do about a chapter a week or so. It really depends on what I have going on that week - some weeks I could probably manage two or three chapters, and some, well, maybe not at all. But let's try to not shoot for that.
Anywhooooo, I hope you enjoyed the final installment to Anna's Wedding! Some questions to ask yourself:
- Where was Jack?
- Who are those fire people?
- What's going to happen between Jack and Maximus?
- Will Olaf ever get a girl?
Sooo many questions to be answered in the coming chapters of this story! I'm excited for it's potential! I hope to see you all very soon, and until next week, my lovelies!
