Once Elsa was ready, they made their way to where one of the servants had told them the prince was waiting for them. In the light of day, the castle looked even more striking than the night before. It was similar in style to the Arendelle castle except for the color scheme, which showcased more opulence with its golden tones. A lot of light came in from the tall windows on one side of the dining area, and a dark wood table surrounded by a dozen chairs filled the room.

There was a young man waiting for them. Prince Stefan, Elsa presumed as she noticed the fancy deep red suit he was wearing. He had light brown hair and soft features that corresponded perfectly to the prince charming standards. He was waiting for Elsa, and when she arrived, he flashed a brilliant smile and bowed his head. "Queen Elsa, it's an honor to meet you, and a pleasure to have you as our guest."

She gave a small nod and smiled politely. "The pleasure's mine."

"You'll have to excuse my parents' absence. They had business abroad. Come, sit." When she was seated, he took his place right in front of her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa noticed Katherine making her way to stand at attention by the wall.

"What are you doing? Come sit with us."

Katherine's eyes widened, mirroring the prince's expression, who was as surprised as she was by Elsa's offer.

"That's not my place, Your Majesty," she said solemnly.

"Nonsense," Elsa turned back to look at Stefan, who still had surprise covering his features. "You don't mind, do you?"

It was as outrageous a thing as he had ever heard. But he was on a mission to woe her, so as she wished, it was done. "Not at all," he said with a smile that he hoped passed as genuine.

For Katherine, it did not. But as Elsa urged her to take the place at her side with a radiant smile, she couldn't but to oblige, albeit awkwardly.

"I had never seen a servant share a queen's table," Stefan remarked as they were being served.

"I guess we're more liberal in Arendelle. Also, she's not a servant, she's my personal guard."

"Yeah, we don't see that very often either. A female soldier. That's quite extraordinary," he nodded to Katherine, who didn't bother to meet his gaze, occupying herself with her breakfast.

"It really is," Elsa turned to face her and gazed at her with so much genuine admiration it had Katherine averting her eyes. She wasn't used to getting so much attention, especially not from royalty.

Ignoring what was happening in front of him between the two women, Stefan decided to get down to business. He had forty-eight hours to try to win Elsa's heart. He was going to take full advantage of every moment he had with her.

"It's truly an honor to be in the presence of the ruler of such a rapidly developing realm…" He proceeded to list what his advisors had told him were the strengths of Arendelle and of its monarch.

As soon as they had walked in, Elsa knew this was yet suitor trying to get her to marry him. He had been on seduction mode as soon as he saw her. And now he was doing what every other one before him had. Really, it was remarkable how many there had been in the last few months. And how their methods were sensibly all the same. He was probably about to ask her what she did with her free time.

So, she answered the questions politely and mindlessly, and busied herself by glancing at Katherine every so often as the soldier ate in silence. She was trying to figure out if something had happened to her, and if that was what haunted her in her sleep.

Katherine was aware the queen kept looking at her. Elsa was not being very subtle, but she acted as if she didn't notice.

Katherine was intrigued by the fact Elsa didn't really seem interested in this prince. Must be interesting, having men basically throw themselves at you, she thought. Maybe she was used to it? Who knew. But Katherine was even more baffled by the fact that Elsa seemed to find her more alluring than the rich, powerful man that sat in front of them. What was that about?

Two days of Prince Stefan shamelessly hitting on Elsa and a contract renewal later, the queen and her entourage were back on their way to Arendelle.

On a couple of occasions during their stay in Stanheim, as Katherine had watched over Elsa while Stefan had tried to conquer her, she had felt the urge to interfere. Couldn't he see how uninterested she clearly was? He was either clueless or way too determined. But she never gave into her impulse. All on her own, Elsa had swiftly shut him down every single time with practiced ease.

Halfway through the second and last day of traveling, Elsa stared out of the carriage at the snowy landscape and sighed. This being the fourth day in one week that they traveled through the forest, the frost covered conifers were becoming redundant. While she was excited by the fact that they were finally getting back home, she felt as if the last hours between them and Arendelle would last forever.

As she tried to think of a way to distract herself, the carriage stopped.

"Your Majesty," Katherine opened the door. "We're going to have the horses rest for a moment and drink some water. Want to stretch your legs?"

"Yeah, thanks." She took the gloved hand the soldier offered her and stepped out of the carriage.

They had stopped by the tree line besides a lake. The snow-covered mountains dominated the sights over the pines. It was a breathtaking sight with the sun shining brightly over the ice-covered water and the infinite shades of white covering almost everything.

As the other guards took care of the horses, the women walked along the lake.

"I hope you're not getting too bored on this trip," Elsa said with a small smile.

"What do you mean?" Katherine asked, gripping her shield with her left hand, opposite Elsa. They were in unfamiliar territory, so she wanted to be prepared for anything.

"I mean that you're a soldier. You must have an exciting life. More exciting than following me around in diplomatic missions and endlessly traveling through the forest."

Katherine threw Elsa a sideways glance. "I really appreciate this opportunity. It's an honor to guard the queen."

Elsa smiled and rolled her eyes playfully. "No, really."

"Really!" Katherine laughed. "I was in charge of patrolling back in Arendelle. As important as it is, there's not much excitement there. And I didn't get to travel places I'd never been to before, or to meet all those new people."

Elsa considered this and nodded. "Okay. I'm glad you can enjoy yourself while doing your job, then."

They continued walking in companionable silence and Katherine kept wondering about the queen's interest. Again, in the military, her feelings were never considered.

"Why the question?" She ended up asking, curiosity getting the better of her.

Elsa shrugged. "I wondered if you found the traveling as dreadful as I do."

"You find it dreadful?"

"I do find myself having the urge to ask you guys if we're almost there yet fairly often," Elsa smiled and Katherine chuckled softly, imagining it. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what I do a lot. But I've never cared much for the long journeys."

"I get that. The only real big trek I've made outside of the army was when my father and I left our hometown to move to Arendelle."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I was eleven. It only took three days, but it felt like a lifetime. And in my case, I did ask my father countless times if we were almost there yet."

Elsa tried to picture a younger Katherine pestering the great General Magnus and laughed. "I feel sorry for the general all of the sudden."

Katherine smiled. "Yeah, well, on the third day, he finally figured out a way to shut me up. We played a game."

Now Elsa was intrigued. "Which one?"

"It was a silly game…"

"I'll take anything at this point."

"It basically involves finding something around you and making the other person guess what it is. For example, I say 'I spy with my little eye something green.' And then you say something that's around here that's green."

"Like a tree?"

"Exactly. And if you wouldn't have guessed it, I would've given another clue, and so on."

"Okay," Elsa nodded and grinned. "Try me."

"I'm sorry?"

"Make me guess something. Or, you know what? I'll make you guess."

Katherine kept her eyes on Elsa for a moment and was amazed at the excitement she found in them. She couldn't but comply with a smile. "Alright."

"I spy with my little eye something… breathtaking," Elsa looked out at the landscape dramatically.

Katherine chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully. "Well, that narrows it down," she said in a sarcastic tone. "Um…" Just before Katherine tried to hazard a guess, she heard one of the other guards whistling, signaling that they were ready to continue the journey. "Oh, sorry. It would seem we're ready to get back on the road."

As they started getting closer to the site, Katherine stopped suddenly, taking Elsa's arm to stop her too.

Elsa was literally taken aback. "Wha—"

"Shh!" Katherine hushed her, trying to listen. She did so intently and realized something was going on close to the road. The soldiers must have moved the carriage there, because they weren't by the lake where they had left them anymore. Judging by the sound of metal against metal that now echoed through the woods, it was probably something violent.

They were frozen in place for a moment, until a loud crash had Katherine shoving Elsa into the shrubbery, trying to conceal her.

"What was that?" Elsa asked once she had gotten over the confusion of being pushed to the ground. Fear settled deep in her gut as she saw the now hardened look on the soldier's face. It reminded Elsa of the way Katherine had looked the day she went see the Arendelle army training, but tenfold.

Katherine's brain ran quickly. They were probably under attack, so she had to figure out a way to both assure Elsa's security and help her fellow soldiers.

"I don't know," her gaze was lifted to the sky as she calculated the best way to do her job. She gripped her shield tighter as she did, glad to have it with her.

Katherine was kneeling beside Elsa, who was sitting on the ground. She felt a chill run through her spine as she felt the air grow significantly more biting around them. She glanced at Elsa's concerned expression and guessed the sudden cold came from her. "It's going to be okay," she tried to reassure her. "But I'm going to need you to stay here," she looked at the queen seriously. Now Katherine was the one calling the shots.

Elsa didn't have time to say anything, as Katherine quickly leapt out of the hideout, running towards the danger.

Towards the danger. They were in danger. Like hell Elsa was going to stay behind while her guards risked their lives. She took a moment to compose herself and then ran behind Katherine.

When Elsa got within sight of the road, Katherine was the only one of the Arendellian soldiers still standing. The element of surprise had allowed her to take down two of the men of the enemy army, but there were five left, and they were starting to round her up.

An ice blast coming out of the woods took one of the men out, and had the other four looking up in shock, not knowing what had hit them. Katherine's heart dropped to her stomach. As if she hadn't been on edge enough. What the hell was Elsa doing, putting herself in the line of fire?

Despite of the horrific images that flashed through her mind, the situation bringing up painful memories, she was quick enough to take advantage of the distraction to knock out another one of the henchmen, who were rushing backward.

They were clearly a team of mercenaries whose only order was to kill their mark, as they didn't seem to mind the fall of their comrades. They were deadly, and Katherine wasn't sure she would be able to take them all out by herself.

As they regrouped, Katherine decided to run to where the ice blast had come from and Elsa joined her at the tree line.

"What are you doing here?" Katherine hushed, keeping her eyes on the men, who were slowly approaching them. The fact that they were still focused on the kill despite just seeing what Elsa could do made Katherine even more nervous.

"I wanted to help," Elsa hushed back.

"You disobeyed a direct order."

"I'm not a soldier."

At that moment, one of the mercenaries shot his bayonet their way, but Elsa was looking at Katherine, so the soldier pulled her to the ground, placing her shield towards the men, to keep her from being hit.

"Clearly," Katherine huffed, the adrenaline making her pulse race, blood pumping in her ears as she knelt beside Elsa on the snow.

The soldier was surprised to realize that the arrow had never made it near them. When she looked up, she saw the wall of ice that had trapped the arrow above them.

Katherine looked sideways at Elsa in awe, but the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps quickly had her springing back into action.

As the mercenaries rounded the wall of ice and lunged from both sides to attack, the girls automatically positioned themselves back to back and fought them off. Elsa took out two, encasing them in ice, and Katherine took the last one out.

Suddenly, everything was silent again, except for Elsa's and Katherine's heavy breathing. They slowly looked around at the injured men and at those trapped in ice.

Katherine turned to look at Elsa, who seemed in shock. "You said you wanted more excitement?"

That quickly lightened the mood and even had Elsa rolling her eyes playfully, breaking her out of her stupor. "That is not what I meant."

"I'll go look for our men," Katherine said, hoping they were still alive. "You should probably encase them all in ice. I don't think I used lethal force on all of them."

Elsa nodded and went to work, effectively trapping the enemy men for the foreseeable future. When she got to the last one, she took the time to examine his uniform. It was a black tunic with yellow detailing. Her stomach churned when she recognized the symbol emblazoned in the center of the chest. It was a yellow and white Maltese cross, the Hodgevike crest. These men had been sent by Oddvar to kill her.

AN: Thank you for reading!