The Girl With A Frozen Touch

Chapter Twenty Five: Demon Child

By: The Firebending Frog

Special thanks to everyone who voted on my poll

Disclaimer:

I do not own Frozen, it is the property of Disney and Disney animation studios

When March dawned on Arendelle we were greeted with surprisingly strong and surprisingly warm winds from the sea. Suddenly the winter wonderland I'd been living in since the end of Autumn was fading away and receding into the fjord. Everyone and I mean everyone kept saying this was a good sign and meant good fortune. I wasn't happy about it though. The icy crystals and chilly air was replaced by a wave of ugly brown and dead things. It reminded me of those last few days of autumn when all the leaves had fallen off the trees and I was left staring at bare lands with nothing interesting to them. I spent a solid three days sulking about the castle and feeling oddly tired and drained. As if I wasn't eating enough or something. The warm spell didn't help either and before I knew it every bit of snow minus small tufts in the shade had vanished and I just wandered around the dead courtyards looking up at bare branches while water fell. I didn't like spring, it was muddy and gross, Even when I decided to have fun with the puddles splashing in them and tracking soggy footprints about the courtyard all I got in response was my mother telling me to behave and punishing me by getting soap in my eyes during my bath, that was another thing I hated about that spring. Gerda was out of commission. When the snow had started to melt she had fallen and broken her leg meaning she got time off work while my mother began giving me my baths personally. She quickly got me into a routine of being completely clean within fifteen minutes and then I wasn't even allowed to escape seeing as the warm weather had brought a lot of merchants to town. A lot. So lots of fabric was available and the local seamstresses got a hold of me.

With my mother and Gerda at the helm of this influx of deep blues I was suddenly in ownership of a brand new wardrobe of prototypes. The ladies could stand me on a stool and measure me for hours while I stood there blank faced and staring off into the distance and then the most excruciating part was them fitting the dress around me or a mannequin. However the clothing I did get was mostly a deep blue or dark green, so I was happy with the results and my dresses were usually more detailed than the ones they'd sell in stores. For once in my life all my clothes fit me and I knew that as long as I didn't hit my growth spurt I'd be sporting these wonderful dresses for the next year and then they'd go to Anna.

Speaking of which...

The little demon's teeth had been coming in. Right now she had four and looked really weird. Of course the new cartilage in her mouth was exciting but when I flashed her a smile she began crying upon realizing there'd be more to come. With these teeth to base her speech with she had gone from gurgling to a garbled language of noises that sounded nothing like words but showed signs that she'd be a talkative one. Her new favorite activity was following my mouth movements and imitating me, so I'd start singing or say a really big word and she'd stare at me with her mouth hanging open. It was kind of funny. I also noted something, my parents would speak the most ridiculous words around her and mess up words at the same time. Like Foot was now Foots, yeah that was weird. I later learned that they hadn't really spoken baby talk to me so that could be a reason for my exceptional speech but I wasn't going to listen to what every superstitious maid and cleaning lady had to say, but the baby talk bothered me to say the least and every time I heard them mispronounce a word I went and stared at the dictionary for a few minutes to recover.

Speaking of reading Gabe had really upped his game as of late. He was spewing words I doubted even existed and we'd started looking at plays, some of which I thought raised red flags. Instead of being a coherent story it was a script separated from the explanatory parts and as we studied I got quite a bit better with my speech, something I was sure would draw stares if I was a normal child, but being allowed to see the best teachers and have the best studies allowed me to advance past every other child my age. I got so good at reciting lines that I'd occasionally catch myself randomly muttering lines from Hamlet and The tale of The Snowflake out loud to the confusion of some of the undereducated staff members, Some of the words I used in particular weren't even real and were made up to describe things. My mind would go over three hundred miles per hour and I'd started naming every single area of the castle like some colonial girl with way too broad of an imagination. So I started to find a lot of joy with the new spring flowers who smelled sweeter than the most famous of baked goods. I watched as insects would appear out of the dead grass and I'd pretend they had a story and I'd mumble to myself while I watched. Perhaps it was out of loneliness or perhaps it was out of my newfound love for stories of the fantastical sort.

But nothing was more surprising as march ended with an odd warm temperature and spring in full force than what happened when Anna reached nine months.

I was playing with dolls in the library, pretending they were cursed princesses that needed to be freed when I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned my head to see Anna standing behind me.

"SHE CAN WALK!" I screamed and dashed out of the room as quickly as humanly possible with Anna chasing me with unsteady legs. I slid the door shut and heard the slam from her impact and I cringed expecting the crying to start but it didn't, she was hurt wasn't she? She had to be!

I creaked the door open and was literally tackled by her, she laughed and exposed her incoming teeth, every day she was starting to look more like my sister and less like a useless ball of fat.

"Get off!" I ordered pushing the little redhead off with a small laugh. Anna sat on her backside and began smacking the ground making a hair raising tune with the floorboards and yelling garbled nonsense. I stood and backed away and she imitated me except she followed instead of backing away. I stared at her wide eyed and looked for an escape route, I was faster than her and she had a very short attention span, but then it hit me, where was the person supervising her.

I looked at Anna and then down the hall as if expecting my mother to come frantically running down the hall screaming bloody murder over Anna's absence. But no one, not even a member of staff was in sight. I sighed and held out my hand expecting Anna to grab it but instead she began climbing up my leg and pulled me to the ground by my dress before sitting atop me like she had won some sort of competition.

I really have no idea how long we sat there but eventually my mother appeared and burst into laughter while I glared at her from under my sister.

"It's not funny!" I shouted, "Save me!"

"How did she get on top of you?" She asked.

"When did she start walking and when were you going to tell me?!" I demanded angrily.

"Walking?" She asked in confusion, "Maybe we need to get you out of those books Elsa, you didn't start crawling until you were ten months old and walking didn't even begin for a few months after that, so I doubt Anna is-"

She was cut off by Anna sanding up and walking to her, my mother's face was a mixture between spider on the floor and cute puppy. I really didn't understand it. Anna walked up to her and my mom picked her up with a very warm look in her eyes while I lay on the floor splayed out in the hall in the least regal way possible, someone with bad vision could probably confuse me with a murder victim.

"What are you all happy about?" I asked not even moving.

"Your sister can walk." She replied happily.

"I have a bad feeling about this." I stated through gritted teeth.

"Oh hush, it'll be fine." She replied while bouncing Anna up and down in her arm.

Turns out I was right about Anna walking not being a good thing, Not even two days after she'd started she was already steady on her feet and running around smacking into things. She broke three vases, numerous plates, even a mirror. She just ran into tables and knocked whatever was on there off and began crying like the table had been doing things wrong. I bet if she could talk she'd be yelling for the tables to be beheaded, that's how much she cried. Privacy was gone. Anna had quickly discovered how to escape her crib and tended to run amuck through the castle in the middle of the night like a cat. The only problem with that though was my parents foiled her plots with a locked door while a new crib that was larger was ordered from a local woodworker who specialized in household objects. So Anna was locked in my room with me at all times of the night. More than once she'd ripped the blankets off me at night and made me panic thinking a monster had just attacked me only to find her buried in them and giggling like a fool.

It also didn't help that her absolute favorite person in the world was my mother. Whenever she'd leave the room Anna would cry for a few minutes and then start to pester me. She'd grown more teeth by now and even seemed excited to have them, my finger's weren't so happy and I quickly learned to keep my fingers away from her lethal jaws. Another thing that bothered me was her hair. It had started to lengthen and instead of either going dark or light it just remained red like Lily's, so I had a heart attack every time I saw her thinking she was my... Er... Friend. Mother said she wouldn't actually have either an auburn or strawberry blonde hair colour until she got older. I just scowled, Was I the only person in the world who had a weird hair colour. I actually think it got even lighter over the winter. The darker blonde in it had faded a lot and the Platinum just came in harsher than ever.

But overall even if she now knew what no and rock meant she was actually more obnoxious than she was as a baby, okay no, she was just more difficult to deal with, especially now that she got into literally everything. Several times she'd just flee an open door and end up sitting knee deep in a mud puddle outside and I'd have to tell someone where she was.

I actually found most of my relaxation outside now that she'd starting walking. Spring flowers were starting to emerge, buds for leaves were on the trees, and the grass was slowly but surely returning to green, Sure I would've liked the usual winter until April business but a march spring was welcome in my books. It wasn't too warm yet and there were still patches of snow I could sit on whenever I felt like using my powers. But alas time was growing thin with that, even the random cold spells that killed everything wouldn't last, all they did was reset the grass, flowers, and buds on the trees so I'd started to get a little more wary about using my powers. The good news? Apparently I had more control now, Yeah with a lot more fun and heartwarming things to do I'd grown accustomed to them and they no longer scared me. They really couldn't hurt anyone unless you count slipping on ice and hurting your back pain... ish. but still it was way easier to contain my powers now that it was spring, and spring brought flowers.

Oh the colours they sprouted in, the early creepers had burst into a colourful white plume of good aroma, I found myself in love with the outdoors suddenly, it was like a distraction from what was going on in the castle, I'd learned quickly though not to get upset around flowers or they froze solid and scared anyone who found the circle of tiny frozen plants in direct sunlight. I avoided touching the gardens though, they hadn't bloomed yet and were just pushing out of the ground. Speaking of gardens the staff tripled in size the moment they were needed and they didn't just do our gardens this year either, they'd worked tirelessly and on the bridge leading to the castle hundreds of stone pots had been attached along with some oil lamps for lighting, the stone pots were very temporary but the lamps were going to last a while. I loved it so much, flowers just made my day, well unless Anna was there.

The fussy eater refused to eat fruits and anything else my mother tried to feed her, but flowers, dirt, and small crustaceans that were still alive were just delicacies, I'd be scouring the gardens for bugs while Anna just found them and ate them much to my dismay. I loved seeing the new spring bugs but for a completely different reason, well most spring bugs that is, large insects that walked in a creepy way were too much for me and I'd made quite a spectacle in town when a boy had been running from a bee like a madman while I just laughed and chased after it like a dopey two year old. Very princesslike.

Gabe made things very interesting and difficult, he pushed me very hard to achieve good speech and writing and I pushed back by trying my hardest and succeeding. Although there were some questionable things he taught in the plays he made me read. Actually we had moved on from simple reading and writing, now I was being forced to memorize bits of difficult dialogue without any help for assessment, something that I achieved a high level at.

"Thou hast cleft my heart in twain." I concluded as Gabe stalked around me nodding his head.

"Very good Elsa, very good indeed." Gabe sighed, "I don't think I will every understand it but you seem to be able to speak and read well beyond your years, this should come happy in diplomacy if you ever do ascend the throne. You have a gift my dear, I know not what has caused it but I do know it is a very useful trick, most people will assume you uneducated.

"Why's that?" I asked in confusion.

"Aye, the world is a difficult place for women, particularly for royalty, to many your only goal in life is to be married and bear children." Gabe explained.

"Ew! I don't want to get married! Especially to a boy! They're disgusting, and rude, and like to stab things!" I protested as if he expected me to leave the tower and go get married.

"Now calm down Elsa, calm down, I didn't mean that!" Gabe exclaimed, "You have a long way to go before anything like that happens, I'd say princes will begin trying to court you when you're sixteen or older, your father is pretty strict about the age barrier."

"Okay." I sighed in relief, "I was scared for a moment there."

"Well that concludes today's lesson.' gabe stated walking to his desk and opening a drawer, "Remember that we only have two left."

"Two left?" I asked in confusion walking to the desk and jumping in order to peer over it, I was too short but when I was at maximum height mid jump I could see over the desk.

"yes, I return to France next week, our last lesson will be on Friday and I leave Monday." Gabe explained as he stuffed papers into the desk.

"You can't leave!" I exclaimed backing up so I could stare at Gabe from another angle.

"Elsa, I must, I cannot be away from the university for much longer." Gabe explained with a sigh, "Now I must implore you leave so I may begin planning your final lessons."

I sighed and walked out of the room with an air of sorrow, why did everything have to be changing so rapidly, Anna was starting to walk, Spring was here earlier than ever, I'd suddenly gained the ability to read and write, and now Gabe was going to disappear and I wouldn't see him again, it was strange how I'd gone from seeing him as a threat and monster to seeing him as a legitimate teacher and someone I respected. I felt a pang of loss as I descended those stairs and knew my heart wasn't going to be in it for the next two lessons. There was no way it could be.

"Where am I?" My mother asked covering her face as Anna sat on her lap, Anna's eyes widened and she looked directly at me looking absolutely shocked and worried. I had no idea why she was falling for that, she knew what my mother's hands looked like.

"Elsa, just because you never fell for it doesn't mean others won't." My father stated silencing my snarky comment that had been loading in my brain.

"But it looks like she's just blaming me for it." I complained motioning to where Anna gasped in relief at the sight of my Mother's face and yelled garbled nonsense formed by her four fully developed teeth.

"Well I've found that she does like looking to you for answers." He replied as he flipped the paper he'd been writing on over. This was our average quote on quote family time, my father doing work, Anna soaking up my mother's attention like a Sponge that could soil diapers, and me absolutely bored and wishing I could teleport, but I'd figured out I didn't contain that power. I instead just toyed with a Pencil flipping it through my fingers rather rapidly while waiting for this to stop torturing my comically short attention span.

"So... Why did spring come so early, and how come it's so ugly and looks like Winter is trying to die but refuses to?" I asked curiously.

"Warm winds made Spring come early, Heavy snowfall this Winter led to large drifts, and it'll go away just like how buds are appearing on the trees and flowers are starting to poke from the ground." He replied without even looking up, "Be happy that Spring is here so early, Winter is a terrible time of the year."

"But it's so pretty." I whined, "I barely remember Summer!"

"Good, then you can make new memories and have a fresh perspective on it." He explained and I just looked out the window solemnly, everything was just so bland looking and dead, nothing good could come of this at all. Nothing.

CRACK! Sploosh!

I stared at the hole I'd just made in the early morning ice on the stream with a rock. It was strange to see the world freeze overnight but then go back to melting during the day, it was like Autumn but in reverse. To my amazement the water in the shallow stream was still flowing just under the ice and what I'd done had just caused a chain reaction. I sat down on a rock and watched the ice slowly get torn apart by the water as it spilled over and snapped small bits off creating a large gaping hole. I looked at the shadow hanging over me and assumed I had about an hour before the sun was high enough to start melting everything and making everything messy and disgusting. The last thing I needed was another harsh scolding for tracking mud all over the carpets. I had an odd fascination with mud, it was halfway between liquid and solid and I had a strange love for just touching it and freezing my feet two feet into the ground and having to walk back to the castle in stockings only to ruin them and create a massive mess. I'd confused the gardeners a lot though, they had no idea how my boots got stuck like that.

I'd grown accustomed to mornings like this, where I could be alone and in my element, I loved being around frozen water and ice, I liked the early morning when everyone was still too groggy to bother following me. I'd learned that a few days ago when my mother had just waved me off and told me to go do whatever I wanted, she'd been in a nightgown and looked like she hadn't physically woken up yet so I didn't bother to try and figure out if that meant I could play with sharp things.

"Odd isn't it." A voice stated interrupting the silence and I turned to see Gabe standing there staring at the water, "No matter what gets in its way water will always find its way back to the ocean, most of the time it's underground."

"Okay..." I tailed not really sure where he was going with this.

"yet the only thing that can stop this unstoppable force of nature is the cold." Gabe continued walking to the bank of the stream, "It freezes it in its tracks and prevents it from moving, yet it's only stopped by the changing of the seasons, imagine if the seasons didn't change, what then would happen to the water?"

"It wouldn't move." I replied like it was obvious.

"Perhaps, but there is always something there to stop that ice, I have to wonder what it would be if the seasons failed to change." Gabe concluded before falling terribly silent.

"What's with this sudden fascination with ice?" I asked looking at the stream.

"Elsa do you believe in magic?" He asked.

"No..." I trailed very awkwardly and unconvincingly.

"What is science without magic and what is magic without science, that is the question, we strive to find a logical explanation to what we do not understand and most of the time we find the answers with time, but sometimes something so strange comes along we question our own sanity, we go to extensive lengths just to find answers and despite our best efforts, or most powerful sneaking, our countless artifacts, we never find our answers, we are left with someone who knows something and yet we are lost, wishing we could enter that person's mind." Gabe rambled and stared off into the distance creepily.

"What are you looking for?" I asked standing up and starting to back away.

He turned and stared at me out of the corner of his eye I froze and stared back, he didn't blink, he didn't move, he just stood there staring at me. It was probably the most unnerving thing I'd ever experienced.

"And yet I can tell you are also looking for answers, things that haven't yet been explained to you, maybe you'll make discoveries I cannot." He stated before falling silent. I gave a sigh of relief, He was speaking sane again, he'd stopped using underlying messages about my powers, as if he knew they existed and was angry I wasn't giving him answers.

I smiled at him and he blinked. I blinked back and my mouth opened into a silent scream of terror and he blinked again, his eyes shut sideways, unnaturally, inhuman, monster like.

"You are like a book that is missing pages, but you have a map to those pages within your binding, tell me Elsa, where are those pages?" He demanded turning to me.

"What are you tal-" I started before his hand snatched me by the shoulder and picked me up, he stared at me and I watched the pupils in his eyes change to a more catelike appearance, he hissed at me with a forked tongue and I whimpered in fear at the very sight of him.

"I've spent so much time here looking for answers and today I'm expected to leave, may as well take you with me." He muttered eying me up and down, "How did you get these powers and why can't I copy them?!"

"AHHHHHHH!" I screamed as he began shaking me and light began to pour from his bag.

"AHHHHHHHH!" I screamed.

"Elsa what are you screaming about?!" gabe demanded and I sat up and looked around, I blinked and shivered and turned to see Gabe standing not too far away.

"But wait, you were just, wait? What is happening?!" I screamed diving behind my rock, "Don't come any closer!"

"Elsa, your imagination is getting too vivid again." Gabe muttered.

"No! It was real! I swear! No italics!" I exclaimed.

"Kids." Gabe smiled rolling his eyes and approaching me, he bent down and smiled, "I came to bring you something before I left."

"Is it your soul sucking appendage?!' I demanded angrily.

"No." Gabe replied looking just as confused as me and he suddenly handed a book. I took it and eyed it curiously, "That's a copy of fairy tales from the region, I thought you'd like a copy."

"T-Thanks, but just a second ago you were talking all weird and trying to attack me." I muttered looking at the floor.

"Must have been your imagination, I'm no shapeshifter." Gabe laughed.

"I never said shapeshifter!" I gasped.

"Yes, you actually did, a lot while I was here, it was odd." Gabe replied before ruffling my hair and standing, "Well I'm off to Paris, enjoy that book Elsa."

"Thanks..." I trailed looking at it. A small bird chirped overhead and Gabe began feeling in his bag.

"Hmm, I seem to have misplaced that skull, oh well it's too late to go back now." Gabe shrugged before walking away.

"WAIT!" I shouted and he turned, "... Thanks, for everything."

"You're welcome Elsa, until I see you again enjoy life." Gabe smiled before walking out of the garden, I followed him to the front gates and watched him walk to the harbor with a sigh, He was right I'd just imagined something.

"or did you?" A voice hissed and I turned and screamed at the sight of a grotesque monster. The moment I opened my eyes however it had vanished, I shivered and walked slowly and cautiously to the castle doors and fled inside without looking back clutching that book to my chest like my life depended on it.

I didn't even look up for if I had I would have seen Gabe watching himself leave, except the Gabe in the tree had a cow's tail and was looking somewhat peeved about something. A bird landed next to him and he hissed at it before grabbing it and shapeshifting it into a skull with eyes made of gems, he then tossed it into the water and transformed into the bird his features melting and changing before he flew off without even leaving a trace.

Thanks for reading this chapter, I had fun with it, and who wouldn't have had fun making Anna walk and showcasing what a very underdeveloped mind would do with sudden mobility. I based the seven months thing off my brother who used to get into the baby powder and shoot it into the air by squeezing the container. So I just made Elsa annoyed with everything Anna did and become slightly afraid. Those Anna and Elsa interaction pieces are my favorite parts to write and you guys seem to enjoy reading them. So yeah I'm going to add more scenes of Anna shouting garbled nonsense and running into walls just for you guys.

However I'm doing a request next chapter, someone wanted me to delv deeper into those tapestries seen in the Summer's end festival and last chapter, It was also the highest voted option last time I did a poll, that poll is down by the way and a new one is up for you guys to vote on, just go to my account and you'll see it at the top f the page next to a picture that looks like a Tv loss of connection screen. The next chapter will deal with things that have happened in the past with a slightly paranormal edge and a light horror theme (By that I mean stuff going on that isn't normal, like what you'd see in Paranormal activity but watered down a lot so it isn't scary and more peaks your interest in the plot.). If I were to compare this next chapter to anything imagine what you'd see on Martin Mystery or Gravity Falls, But it's not all plot either, there'll be a lot of character development and something you all crave. Arendelle History learned from Elsa's eyes. This should be fun.

For those of you who want a little bit of say in what you see here just leave a comment or PM me personally, I accept anything you write although I'm not going to use everything I'm suggested, need to keep you guys on your toes. But as Spring comes along expect a lot of beautiful outdoors descriptions. It's starting to melt where I live but then again it's march, we still average a foot of snow at random times. But yeah TTFN Ta ta for now!