A/N: The final chapter of the story. Read it as such.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE FIERY GRAVE

"Elsa? Elsa?! ELSA!"

"Just leave her be, Anna."

"But—Rapunzel—she—!"

"Leave her alone," Kaara interjected.

Anna fell silent. Kristoff hugged her, and she didn't protest. She sobbed into his arms.

"He's dead. He's really dead. No one ever dies. But they do. Why is he really dead?!"

Kristoff shook his head. Tears were dripping down his nose. "I dunno, Anna. Sometimes . . . people just have to go."

"But he's DEAD! The love of Elsa's life is DEAD!" Anna was sobbing into Kristoff's arms.

"I know, honey. I know."

"And we have another problem on our hands," said Kaara.

Ah. The wolves were back.

"Chocolate nuts no," Anna moaned.

"Chocolate nuts yes," Kristoff disagreed.

"This can't happen!" Anna exclaimed.

"It can," said Kaara. "Mary?"

Mary was staring at the wolves. She was sitting on the ground. She slowly stood up and walked towards one of them.

"Mary!" Rapunzel shrieked. "Stop!"

But she didn't. Mary held out a hand to the wolf.

The wolf looked at her curiously for a moment. Then it sniffed her hand and licked it.

Mary rubbed the wolf's back. Then she turned back to the others.

"I have a way," she said. She turned back to the wolf and kissed its forehead.

Soon, a young woman lay on the ground. She was wearing clothes.

Not ice clothes, but real, actual cloth clothes.

"I think we have the magic touch," said Eugene.

Mary glanced at him and gave him a slight smile. "I guess we do . . . brother."

Eugene scowled. "Sister."

"But that isn't our mom," Mary added.

Eugene shook his head immediately. "No. That will never ever be our mother."

People asked if Elsa wanted Nathan to be buried in Arendelle. She said no. People asked if she wanted him to be buried. Elsa said no.

She wanted him to be in a grave the way she would have had her parents be in if she could have. She wanted him to be burned, she wanted to see his ashes rise up into the sky, see that he was not gone by her means, that he was gone by fire and not by ice.

They agreed. No one protested. She wanted to stay here and watch it happen. She couldn't go back to Arendelle like this.

No.

She was too much of a wreck.

Too much of a mess.

Too much of everything.

Instead of a birthday celebration, it was a day of mourning. The ice in Kaara's chest had been removed. People there for Rapunzel's birthday were there. They said they were sorry, but Elsa knew that was a lie. How could they be sorry for a person they'd never met?

She knew it was impossible.

It was Grand Pabbie who said the farewell to Nathan. Elsa was glad it was. At least there was someone good who was doing this.

It was all a blur. The goodbyes from her friends. The tears.

Though one person stood out.

Kaitlyn from the dunking tank walked up to Elsa and looked at her with only sadness in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said.

And Elsa realized that she was.

The ice was everywhere, and yet no one seemed to question it.

And then Elsa watched as the man she had loved was burned to ashes.

The family visiting from Arendelle left the next day. They said goodbye and knew they would visit soon, sometime before Anna's baby was born. No one said anything about the ones who had just died.

Elsa was fine with that.

She stepped onto the ship and watched as Rapunzel and Eugene waved at them, Lily and Benjamin in their arms, Rapunzel's parents at their sides. The Stabbington Brothers had been allowed to get jobs as guards at the palace and had been too busy training to say goodbye. Red was with Rapunzel and Eugene, too, too traumatized by what had just happened, being abducted by Lowelli and being forced to walk innocent people to what she thought was their deaths—too traumatized to make the journey back home.

Kaara, Kristoff, Olaf, Summer, Anna, Mary, and Nya stood next to Elsa, not touching her, but not too far away from her either. They were silent as the cool summer breeze carried them out into the ocean, the distant dots on the horizon shrinking faster and faster until all around them was ocean. The clear blue skies seemed to mock Elsa, showing that they were happy, teasing her when she was beyond sadness, beyond agony, beyond anything.

She was worse of a wreck than her parents' sunken ship.

"So you have a brother now," Kaara commented after a while to Mary.

Mary nodded slowly. "I always have. I lost one . . . I'm not planning on losing the other."

"Where'd that come from?" asked Kristoff.

Mary sighed and shrugged. "Just . . . everything."

Elsa stayed silent; she knew without asking what Mary meant.

"What should we name our baby?" Anna wondered aloud after a moment.

There was a pause.

"Maybe if it's a boy, we could use Nathan as his middle name," Kristoff suggested.

Elsa could barely choke back the sob.

"Maybe. . . ." Anna's voice trailed off, and there was silence again. Then she turned to Elsa.

"So, what happened while I was a wolf?"

Elsa looked at her for a moment, not sure of what to say. Then she told her everything—the chaos of the ball, going into the woods, coming back to the kingdom with that strange blast of magic. Now, as she really thought about it, Elsa wondered how exactly that had happened.

Her sister was obviously thinking the same thing. "So things just went . . . boom? You were there?"

"Boom," Elsa agreed.

"But how?" Anna wondered.

Elsa turned her gaze to the ocean, and thought.

"My magic has always been growing. Ever since I was born.

"You know that day when Nathan almost died?"

"With the fire?"

Elsa nodded. "Yes. Grand Pabbie said something about magic, and ice, and . . . love."

Anna nodded, looking closely at her.

"Maybe it was that."

Anna didn't answer, but looked out at the water with her sister, still nodding slightly.

And it was left at that.

As the salty ocean breeze blew in her face, Elsa wondered. What would happen next? Where was she supposed to be headed now?

Would she lose more of the people closest to her heart?

Elsa shivered, even though she was immune to the cold. But it seemed a little . . . ticklish now. She shrugged it off. What could be worse than what had just happened?

Then, the Snow Queen wrapped her arms around her family, knowing that as long as she had any power within her, she would never let them go.

A/N: And scene.

Well, people . . . this is it. The end of The Wolf. It has taken many, many months, but at last, the finale is here!

Now . . . as for a third book . . . I am not completely certain as to whether or not there will be one. I really need to finish up the rest of my stories on here before I start anything new. However, I have some ideas, and once all my other stories are cleared up and done, I may begin thinking more on them. Let me know if I should do book three or not and any ideas you might have! They could come in handy. ;) Thank you SO much for all of your wonderful support and patience. Please favorite, review, and share with your friends! Thanks you again sooooooooooo much!

Make sure to follow me if you want to know exactly when I'll be posting the possible third book (which would be called Melted). It might be a while.

Signing off for now. . . .

-MagicFireTiger