Chapter 28

Despite the few hours of fretful sleep she had managed the previous night, Elsa's fear made her aware and alert. The sun had yet to rise as she sat beside a small, crackling fire, breaking her fast on a bowl of what might have been porridge, except that it was bright green. It was very early, so much so that Elsa had risen before the sun. The village was deserted, save for the occasional troll who had woken after her, but Elsa preferred it that way. The quiet gave her space to think.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of familiar laughter behind her. Turning, she saw Olaf rolling down a large, snow-covered incline not too far from the village. He rolled into her midst and stopped at her feet. "Hi, Elsa!" he cried happily.

Elsa managed a weak smile in return. "Hello, Olaf."

He saw that Elsa was upset, and his frozen smile faded. "What's wrong? You look sad."

"I am sad." she said. "Bad people have come to Arendelle, and they want to hurt us."

"Well why don't you just fight them and make them go away?"

Elsa sighed. "It's not that easy, Olaf. They have thousands of soldiers, and all we've got is me. I'm not strong enough to fight them all."

She knew this was true. She hadn't been able to create more than a few objects at a time, and even if she could make a hundred soldiers, it would still mean nothing. Nothing she did would help them now, and the only options were either a quick death if she turned herself over, or an undoubtedly slow one if she tried to meet Hans on the field of battle.

Olaf thought for a moment. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, Olaf. I really don't know." Considering for a moment that she had nobody else to seek counsel from, she spoke again. "What would you do?"

Olaf thought for a moment. "Well, even if I knew that I couldn't win, I'd still want to at least try to protect the people I cared about. I wouldn't give up on them, not ever."

"What if you were afraid?"

"Well, of course I'd be afraid. But if you love someone, you have to be brave for them. That's what love is, you know. I told Anna a long time ago that love means putting someone else's needs before your own."

Elsa's lip began to quiver. "But I don't know if I can be brave, Olaf."

He laid one of his wooden hands over her own. Despite the fact that it wasn't made of flesh, it had a slight warmth to it. "You never know unless you try. But right now, it sounds like you don't have time to try."

"You're right. It will be dawn soon, and when Hans sees that I'm not turning myself over, he'll attack us."

"So what are you going to do?"

What can I do? If fight, I'll die. If I don't fight, I'll die.

Elsa made her choice. "I have to fight. If I'm going to die either way, I'm going to die protecting Anna."

Olaf smiled gently. He wrapped his wooden arms around Elsa, who returned the embrace with such force that she almost crushed his soft body.

"Thank you, Olaf."


"Elsa, I am NOT staying here while you risk your life!"

Anna hadn't reacted well to Elsa's request to remain in the village, as was to be expected. But Elsa was standing firm.

"Yes you are, Anna. I'm not asking you anymore, I'm telling you. Understood?"

The younger girl crossed her arms defiantly.

"Anna?"

"Give me one good reason why I should."

Elsa looked pointedly at Anna's stomach and cleared her throat.

"Oh." Anna said. "Damn it, Elsa. I hate you sometimes."

"But you love me all the time, right?"

Anna tried not to grin at Elsa's use of her own words, but failed miserably, a wide smile breaking out across her face. "Right."

"I'll be careful, Anna. I promise." Not that it will make a difference.

"Elsa, I really wish you wouldn't go. But I guess you don't have a choice."

"You're right, I don't. Stay with Galdur, he'll keep you safe." She leaned in and, despite the fact that many of the trolls were up and about around them, planted her lips on Anna's. Nobody seemed to notice.

When she pulled away, Elsa saw that Anna's eyes were still closed and her lips still slightly puckered. "How do you expect me to let you go now?" she whispered.

"I really do have to leave. But I'll be back soon, I promise." Lying to her tore at Elsa's heart, but there was no way on earth that Anna would have let her go if she had told the truth.

Anna opened her eyes and stared sadly into Elsa's eyes. "I know I've said this before, but if you don't come back, I'm going to kill you."

"I know." she said. "I love you, Anna. More than anything in this world, or the next. You know that, right?"

"Of course I do. I love you too." She pulled Elsa into a tight hug, holding her for several seconds and trying to hold back her tears. Finally, she let go,m managing a weak smile. "Now go, before I change my mind."

If she was sure that the next sound out of her mouth wasn't going to be a sob, then Elsa would have said something. Instead, she simply kissed her sister's forehead and left.

Anna wasn't sure how long she had stood there, staring in the direction her sister had gone, before she noticed Olaf standing beside her. "I wish there was something we could do to help." he said quietly. "I mean, Elsa created me, so I just wish I could do something for her."

Anna turned to face him. "What did you say?"

"I just said that Elsa created me, and I-"

He was cut off by Anna hugging him. "Olaf, you're a genius!"

"I am? Why?"

"Because, like I told her, there is no way in hell that I'm going to stay here while she risks her life."

"So we're going to help Elsa?"

"That's right. But we'll need some help ourselves, and I know just who to ask."


The Southern army, or at least the fraction that had set up camp on the fjord, was several hundred times bigger than any force Elsa felt confident that she could muster. The tents they had erected stretched across the icy surface of the fjord, and from where Elsa stood, the soldiers moving between them looked like to many ants.

She had found a nice, barren stretch of land in the mountains to conjure her army on. Not that she was confident that her creations would amount to much of an army. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, imagining a single frozen soldier, armed with a sword and shield. A gust of icy wind told her that her creation had come to life. Elsa opened her eyes and saw the soldier standing motionless, awaiting her command.

"Give me your sword."

He wordlessly handed it over. Elsa swung it, testing it's weight. It felt right, but she had once told Anna that she couldn't create strong weapons from ice. Hoping she had been wrong, she spied a small sapling nearby, and used the sword to cut through it. The blade sliced through the thin wood like it wasn't there. Impressed, but cautious, Elsa decided to try something bigger. She swung the sword into a small boulder and cheered mentally as the blade bit into the rock, taking off a small chunk.

So much for ice not being very strong.

She returned the sword to her soldier, before closing her eyes once again. This time, she imagined ten soldiers, identical to the first. Another, slightly stronger gust of wind and she saw ten more soldiers before her.

Time to step it up.

She imagine one hundred soldiers, some armed with swords and shields, others with lances and spears. She felt a strong wind before falling to her knees. Her strength was beginning to give, and she hadn't created nearly enough soldiers.

More. I need more.

She created another hundred soldiers, then another hundred mounted lancers, and finally a few dozen golems before she collapsed, completely drained and exhausted. She took a moment to gather her strength before hauling herself up out of the snow and examining her forces. There were just over three-hundred. Not nearly enough to defeat Hans' army, but it was the best she could do.

Finally, Elsa created a suit of glittering ice armor for herself, watching her clothes freeze and turn to powder as the hard plates of ice took their place. She also made two shortswords, before finally creating a flowing cape out of dark blue ice, so dark it almost seemed black.

I guess that's the best I'm going to get.

"With me!" she cried to her army. They let out a single cry before following her to the fjord.

It took her little under a half-hour to reach the fjord, but by the time she had, the Southern Army had already assembled. Her own force was only a fraction the size of their own, and there were still hundreds, thousands more soldiers at sea. The men of the south stood in formation, with swords, maces, bows and lances at the ready. Elsa spotted Hans standing before them all, staring in her direction with what she knew was a smug, self-satisfied smirk.

"I wish to speak to your king!" she called to the southerners. A moment passed, before Hans and his bodyguard strode toward a point halfway between Elsa's army and his own and stopped. Elsa went out to meet them, taking two of her soldiers with her.

"I must admit," Hans said as she approached him, "I had thought you would turn yourself over to me."

"I was going to. But someone convinced me otherwise."

"Then you're as foolish as this attempt to stop me. How many do you count in Queen Elsa's band of abominations, Bjornstad? A few hundred, maybe?"

Bjornstad chuckled. "If that. I too must admit that I expected more from you, witch. After all, you did convince my friend Galdur to devote himself to you."

Elsa knew she was in no position to threaten. Even so, she stood straight and spoke.

"I give you one final chance to leave my kingdom, Hans. You and all you men. Do this now, and you will see no retaliation from me, and perhaps Arendelle and the Southern Isles can be friends once more."

As she expected, Hans responded with roaring laughter. "You are even more foolish than I believed, Elsa. Your army is nothing compared to my own, and still you find the will to threaten me? You are a fool, but a courageous one, I'll give you that. No, Elsa. I will not leave Arendelle. I am going to destroy your army, and I am going to kill you. And then I am going to find your sister and kill her as well. Once I have done that, and burned your castle and your kingdom both, then I shall leave." he bowed mockingly. "You have my word on that."

"Then we have nothing more to discuss."

"I suppose not." Han turned on his heel and strode back toward his army. Bjornstad stared her down for a moment, and then followed.

Elsa made to return to her army, but was stopped by Hans calling out her name. She turned back to him, and was met with another smirk.

"Perhaps I'll have my way with your sister before I kill her. A sweet beauty like her should not go to waste."

It took everything Elsa had not to hurl an icicle into his face. Hans could see her struggling to control herself, and laughed as he left to command his men.

The anger that Hans had spurred within her filled her with a determination she hadn't felt before. She suddenly felt... powerful. A loud war horn broke through the sound of the wind, signalling the start of the battle.

Elsa closed her eyes once more, before shooting a blast of magic at the ground and watching her creation take shape, feeling only a portion of her new-found, anger-fueled strength leave her as she did.

The dragon she had created unfolded it's glittering wings, revealing the entirety of it's frozen, scaly body. It was covered in ice scales that were as hard as her armor, and the razor-sharp talons on it's feet and wings shone a bright blue. Horns and spines jutted from it's frozen body, and a row of icy fangs sat within it's jaws. It reared it's head and let out an ear splitting roar, before a column of freezing cold, ice-blue flames spewed from it's mouth. Elsa mounted the beast's neck and surveyed her army. Unsatisfied as ever, she quickly conjured three hundred more soldiers, feeling a larger amount of her strength drain. Still not enough to win, but enough to put up a decent fight. The Southern Army watched in awe of the Queen's magic, but in the end it only encouraged them to fight harder for the lies their King had fed them. They marched forward, slowly at first, but picking up speed enough to close the gap between the two forces in a matter of seconds.

This is it.

Elsa unsheathed one of her swords and held it high above her head.

"To battle!" she cried as her mount took to the air. "For Arendelle!"

For Anna.


a/n: I know that this chapter took alot longer than usual, but I had a LOT of studying to do for exams. Fuck you, school.

Anyway, I can't see the next chapter coming out any quicker than this one did, as my exams start next week, and I'll be busy the week after. Sorry, but I really hope you'll all tough it out to the end.

Toodly-oodles,

Cheesepuffs.

P.S: I wrote about two thousand words of this 2,357 word chapter in one sitting. Who knew I had that kind of patience? Not me.

P.P.S: Sorry it's a little shorter than usual. I don't have an excuse for that, other than the fact that I didn't want to write any more today and I felt like you guys deserved something.