Tiny Elephants
Chapter 8: Raw
By: SheAlwaysDies
Flurries sway from side to side rocking like a swing a child has jumped from not a moment ago. They do not capture the Princess of Arendelle's attention. Their beauty is lost on her. Each individual snowflake tells its own story. If Anna were to bother to catch one in her hands, she might see they hold memories. They might not have a single tone of colour to them but there is clearly a redhead in these stories, bouncing around another child.
When each flake falls to the ground, building up the pool of cold, it becomes nearly impossible to read. The memory lost, not taken but shed. The more snow falls the less there is that links Anna to the frail block of ice huddled in the corner. The more it snows the less she will ever find out about the life she once shared with the former Heir to the Throne. It is that person who is letting those memories go.
It looks like a display of affection, magic fluttering, announcing a reunion. But it is an act of fear.
Anna's knees dig deeper into the pile of truths as she pulls herself further, or closer to the Change of Seasons. Anna is not sure what to do with her own frozen fingers, if she should put them back onto the shaking body in front of her or drop them to her sides.
She's shocked at what she sees, bones, ribs that look like they are inhaling the figure's skin. Anna has uncovered a glimpse of a decrepit body. She is still looking at the almost clear skin and the veins pumping blue blood towards a heart. It does not feel like the deceit her father warned her about. Hearts are animal, as are humans. The voice is not mystical. It is real. Tangible for the first time in all of Anna's memories.
Anna tries something new. She passes her hand not on the cold that seems to encase the Change of Seasons but on the small patch of flesh she's uncovered. It causes the body to flinch forward. It does not have much space to evade, its only choice is to press itself further into the wall. It moves on a snap reflex, spinning, knowing full well that its back will fit better into the corner than its front.
The Princess is now face to face with the Change of Seasons.
The jawline Anna sees belongs to the late Queen, even made of chiseled ice, it is unmistakable. The trepidation the Change of Season wears on its brow is the one Anna saw on her dying mother.
The eyes that furrow fear at her aren't glazed by cold. They are not crystallized like the woman the voice showed Anna days ago. They are another sign, just like the tremble in its thin lips. It is confirmed by the shake of its eyes. All together this ice mask is a strange distortion of the Princess of Arendelle. The voice is her sister.
Anna puts her hands out, open and flat, next to her own head. She tells the voice she is not a treat. The snow is still lulled slowly as it falls, but the air gets thinner as more white comes in between them.
The Change of Seasons reacts again. She puts her palm up. Failing to mimic Anna's relaxed fingers; they curl at the top knuckle. Her hand is stretched out in front of her middle. Bright vibrant blue ice threatens Anna. The Princess easily assumes the damage those thin fingers can cause. The Princess is so close to the voice she could easily lean forward and let her forehead fall into a hold. She can feel the cold being expelled by those fingertips.
The Princess slowly starts to cross her own hands in front of her face. The voice accepts her slow movements as Anna defensively covers herself. She looks at the voice through her own fingers. Her eyes dare to roam the body before her. It's breathing hard, on an inhale its breasts push forward, appearing from behind the curled up knees, only to fall again.
The Change of Seasons looks full, looks healthy and curved. The skin Anna saw on its back pointed to something frail. It seems the snow and ice fill in the blanks, showing off a full fledged woman, nearly two decades in age. It may be the manipulation the King spoke of but the Change of Seasons is gorgeous. Even in the feral like position it uses to threaten the Princess, it radiates a savage poise.
Anna lets herself look at it. She isn't afraid. The Princess is something else completely. It should have her reeling, should have her terrified but instead she's fighting a smile as she works her thoughts and mulls over how to proceed. The Change of Seasons allows Anna to make another slow movement. She pushes one hand forward, closing the short distance between her hand and the voice's offence.
Anna interlocks her fingers, drops each one her digits between the grooves in the ice. The Change of Seasons' eyes soften before it lets its fingers fold over and accepts the hold.
"Hi," Anna's voice barely carries past the light storming snow around them. The voice doesn't speak, it nods its hello. The small space between their palms feels warm. Anna cannot see it, but she knows there is now only skin between them there.
"I want to hold you." The Princess asserts. She gives her hold on the cold a slight tug after receiving a second nod from the Change of Seasons. It lets its body fall forward into Anna's arms. She catches the being. The ice is heavy as it falls into her chest. The cold stings even through the layers of Anna's funeral dress. It all hurts but it is the sweetest pain Anna has ever felt. She accepts more of it and she begins to run her hands over the Change of Seasons' skin.
Anna starts at its arms and back. They are the easiest parts to reach. Anywhere her palms go the ice recedes, leaving behind skin with the elasticity of human flesh but the colour of a porcelain doll. The more pressure she applies the more peach freckles start to contrast the white. Anna follows them down the voice's sides.
The Change of Seasons doesn't react much. Her eyes, half veiled, look up at Anna. They are soft and relaxed, almost dozing at Anna's touch. Anna tries not to get frenzied. Every inch almost requires several passes. It has to be direct contact to uncover more of Her. The voice complies, shifting its body to give Anna more access.
The Princess fumbles when the voice leaves her to lay itself into a bed of snow, pressing its raw back into the cold, exposing itself to Anna fully. Anna's eyes linger, not in hesitation but because it feels far too surreal. It feels like a daydream, maybe even a fantasy. She knows she should be condemning her eagerness, but she reaches out. The more friction she makes the realer the Change of Seasons becomes. The more Anna finds Her.
Anna is numb to the cold, she cannot feel it anymore as she pulls her fingers along the natural curve of the voice's ribs. The ice dissolves, doing away with the armour around this being, leaving barely anything. A concave stomach next to only hip bones. Anna fingers uncover coarse curls, they follow the drop in between the voice's thighs and encircle it there. It feels as intimate as rolling her thumbs over the Change of Seasons nipples does, like digging in behind the bend of its knees and holding her fingertips against all pulse points too.
Each stroke is loving as much as it is sexual. Taking the Change of Seasons apart like this feels like Anna's calling. It feels like a gift. There is no way that it could be anything less than an act of love. It's cold and consuming. The voice is shy as it starts to look more and more meek. Still it welcomes touch, lifting and giving access. When their eyes meet it nods encouragingly. Every stroke Anna makes is matched with her eyes. The long arduous process reaches its near end after the pads of the voice's feet reveal high arches.
Anna has to climb the length of the voice's body to reach the last task. The mask. The fog of Anna's cold breath falls into the Change of Seasons face as the Princess lowers her weight onto the small body. She catches herself with her knees but still lets their chests meet.
The voice's blue lips twitch, pulled upwards slightly. Their eyes meet again. Anna drops herself onto an elbow next to a frozen ear. She reaches over to it and pinches the cartilage between her fingers, rubbing and pulling and following the odd ridges that make up a human's sense of hearing. A tiny little hum slips out of the voice's closed lips. It managed to keep it's composer when Anna's fingers had grazed it the length of it's core, breaking only to rock it's hip forward but never to hum.
Anna inhales, wanting to bask in the minute sound. It is a sound of innocence, something Anna had once and shared freely with this being. Although Anna has the real thing in front of her now, she still really wants the Change of Season's voice too. The most eager movement she enacts is jumping to the next ear. The Change of Season does not give Anna the satisfaction. Perhaps the Princess' intentions were too obvious.
The Change of Seasons lips purse. It's almost comical to see the soft pink pop out of the deep blue solid ice of impossibly long hair and the crystallized hues on its cheeks. Anna sneers, not bothering to bite back her laughter. The glare she receives is literally glacial. Ice creeps back over its ears.
"Hey! Don't!" Anna scolds as she instantly covers the Change of Seasons ears and starts to vigorously massage them. The friction creates a warmth, her messy touch thawing at the sides of its face and revealing some platinum white locks. After exaggerating the need to rub ears, Anna works a new strategy, harnessing her focus back on the voice's now smiling mask.
Anna replaces her fervour with feathered touches. She starts right at the voice's hair line dropping down the side of its face and following the flow of its body past the chin and back up the other side. The Change of Season's eyes drop closed every time Anna circles near its temples. It inhales as the singular fingertip nears its lips. Anna indulges each new freckle with a second pass. The Change of Seasons' composer falters alas. Anna takes note of its uneven breaths.
The deep blue eyes that intently watch Anna's touch, they don't need to be thawed. They shine with the same adoration the Princess feeds the voice through her fingers. Anna tries not to be too taken by them, wanting her task to be her only focus. The voice is soon finally Her. They are both suddenly hyper aware that besides thousands of individual strands of hair, only the Change of Seasons' mouth is blue. A frozen tongue moistens the icy lips. They part in anticipation. It's now the voice that has left it's desires easy to read. Anna is playing a long con as she leaves the pads of her fingers on the Change of Seasons' face and lowers her lips to its mouth instead.
She lets them hover over the last of the ice. Eyes locked, the Change of Seasons sucks in a breath and exhales a name.
"Anna."
It's the most euphoric thing the Princess has ever heard. The call that started it all speaks clearly with the least possible amount of distance. No obstructions. Anna has done what she set out to do. She has found the voice. She basks in her success a moment too long. The Change of Seasons takes it upon itself to close the only space left between them. It takes Anna's lips with its ice.
Anna feels a frozen tongue enter her and defrost as it tangles itself inside Anna. The muscle retreats back into cold. Anna follows running her own tongue into the inside of the voice's mouth, feeding it warmth. The Princess wins a mewl. The kiss melts into softness.
"Anna," the voice sighs again. There's a pause as the wet contact comes to an end.
"You're crushing me."
The Princess reacts with wide eyes, jumping back as if after removing the Change of Seasons' ice armour she has revealed hot coals. The voice however clings to Anna, She weightlessly is jerked upwards. Anna calms down to adjust Her on her own lap.
"Sorry," Anna tries but the voice just coos and burrows into Her new position. She curls up around Anna's legs. The fabric She has in Her hands is clutched tightly. From here Anna has good access to the Change of Seasons' hair, after adjusting her ribs into a better position she starts on the locks. They flow well down the voice's back. It's glorious, but also brittle from neglect.
Looking down at Her now, a malnourished carcass pulled out of a shell, Anna realizes that it is no longer true that she does not have means to administer one final blow to the Change of Seasons. With one spark of instrict Anna could take Her life in numerous ways. Anna isn't at war with herself any more though. She knows there is a better way. A way that suits Anna just fine. The skeletal face below her is just as beautiful as the mask She can wear. The only emotion Anna can name as she looks down at the Change of Seasons is love. Love would be her only method of controlling Winter.
"Do you want to leave here?" Anna asks Her.
"Your arms? No."
But the ice around the staircase starts to soundlessly creep back into the walls. The snow begins to lift up towards the roof. Millions of snowflakes, untested memories raise up in the air, Anna's for the taking once more. They become a flurry, some running the length of Anna's cheek as they begin to dissolve upwards. Leaving no ice, no snowflakes, no signs of a shared past except for a gramophone, and a way back down to the castle.
Anna gulps. The way down is also the way up.
"El?" The body in her arms is far too relaxed. Anna gives the Change of Seasons shake.
"We have to go," Anna warns. But the small frail body is done. Although She did so peacefully, clearing the path was a great exertion. The body on top of Anna has fallen useless and unconscious. Anna shivers, whether from the cold or her fear it barely matters. She pulls the voice up closer to her and nearly effortlessly adjusts the Change of Season over her shoulder. The voice's cheek falling on Anna's low back. She's light and thin but long and barely alive draped over her. The Princess reaches out and takes hold of her discarded halberd and with one loud and unlike lady-like grunt pushes herself up to standing.
She lets out a frustrated wail as the pain in her side announces itself again, its vengeance cruel. The halberd itself feels like it weighs more than the Change of Seasons does as Anna tries to take even steps down the winding staircase. She takes purposeful breaths readying herself for whatever she might find once she is in the King's Chambers again.
The King is pacing with hands pulling at his hair. Maybe Anna has been gone an eternity because he looks aged. Her father hears the approach. He halts, his neck snapping in attention. He stands firmly at the foot of the stairs with his hand over his mouth.
"Oh thank the Gods! You've done it." He looks like he might collapse. As if he doesn't know how to stand without this colossal weight on his shoulders. The lightness is too airy. He has a small shine of pride in the swell of his tears. He doesn't drop them. Anna's father dares smile at the idea that the Change of Season hangs over his child's shoulder like a prized buck hunted down.
"I know that wasn't easy but Arendelle will thank you for it. You are the Princess they deserve." The King finds his footing as he offers praise. Anna remembers his face, years ago, the moment he likely realized he protected the wrong daughter and had Anna sent away. For years Anna thought she would kill to see that look in his eyes replaced with this one. She couldn't have been more wrong.
"I didn't. Couldn't. No, I love Her. I wouldn't." Anna adjusts her grip on her weapon. She uses her peripheral to scan the small landing. If only she had made it out of the stairway and through the door. There is no exit but through the King. Her only retreat is back into a prison.
The Princess fears he might hurt the voice due to her admission. She takes up her arm, again placing the spear head under the King of Arendelle's chin. She's shaky, holding the weapon up with one arm is not something she ever trained for. It's heavier than the starved woman on her shoulder but she musters the courage to keep her dominant hand steady.
"Don't you love me?" The King's beg is thick.
"Barely… not enough… not more than Her."
The pride melts away as if it was its own mask Anna has cleared right off.
"What are you going to do now then Anna?" Her heels are pressed into the back of a step. Her upper hand is the determination that puffs up her chest. "You cannot leave here with it. I cannot allow the Change of Seasons to ravish another land. It is Arendelle's problem."
"She's just a girl." Anna defends. But her argument is not the same as the one her heartbroken mother must have cried. There is more to Anna's.
"It's always been me. I'm Arendelle's problem. I'm Her problem. Each storm has been in my name. Don't you get it? I am the Winter when we are apart." The King sucks at the bottom of his lip as he listens to his daughter's words.
"But I'm her solution too. She loves me. It's her blessing and her curse to love me. I know now, if I am at her side, together we can wield her power." Anna cannot help but sound desperate as she pleads her case. She knows what she is prepared to do, if the adrenaline hits her just right she believes herself capable of tearing this man before her down. Anna hopes that the Gods' will is that a father and his two children are meant to live.
"No one should have that power. Controlled or not, it must be snuffed out. No good can come of it!" Anna has her arm snaked over the Change of Seasons, locked in place by the back of Her knees. The Princess still has her hand on a piece of Her skin. She grips harder because the Change of Seasons Herself has only ever made Anna feel good. The bad she suffered knowing the voice existed came from forces Anna never knew about.
"I have been touched by her magic daddy. She should have never been made afraid of it." It's an admission of their shared intimacy. Even if the King is incapable of reading between those lines, Anna speaks it proudly.
"Anna you still don't know what you are talking about. It almost killed you. Something had to be done." Anna cares little for the details. They all add up to one mistake Anna plans to give zero forgiveness for.
"My life is not worth more than all the others that were lost."
"It was the choice the Change of Seasons itself made." Anna still doesn't know Her face well enough to picture the eight year old child making a decision that overrode the King and Queen of an entire nation. What she can see is her own self, prepubescent, overwhelmed with guilt and desperate to take on any punishment to absolve her actions. She tries not to let the thought weaken her, not now. She lets it feed her fire instead.
"She was a child! You allowed that. The stupid fear in your eyes must have terrified her!"
"Tell me, did it not ask to die? Did you not give it the release it too wants?" Anna realizes that the King has taken his sword to the Change of Seasons' prison before. The voice was trained to be in that defeated position, with Her neck exposed. It's the King's only failure Anna is willing to forgive.
"It wasn't hard to convince Her She can have more than death, She can me instead. Why you didn't do the same when She was a child is beyond me." Luckily her father has more inadequacies to debate.
"You weren't there Anna. You got to live in the warmth of your bed while your mother pounded on a door made of pure ice everyday, begging it to come out or to eat or to say something. Pleading at it to Change the Season." The King bares his anger. His face flushes red. He still cares little of the blade in his neck.
"I lost my wife to that thing. It took both my Queens. It locked up my child. And by the look in your eye and the weapon you push into me now, it took you too." Anna refuses that the onus be put on Her. She's slipping off Anna's shoulder. The Princess has to throw up her arm to readjust. Her broken ribs almost fail her as she lifts the dead weight up higher. Anna doesn't have much in her left still she presses on, knowing there is no other option.
"You took Her name. You took Her spot in the world, Her place in this family and left Her with only cold to give. You told Her the one thing she had was dangerous. It took over a decade but She found a way to make the cold feel good. She doesn't deserve to die." Anna takes a full step forward, allowing the tip of her blame to push into the King of Arendelle. He steps back. Anna gets closer to the threshold.
"I'm taking her on. The Change of Seasons is under my charge now. If anyone tries to take Her from me they will be torn down." The King retreats, stepping back this time before Anna has a chance to force him. She follows.
"As long as it lives Arendelle is not safe. You won't be safe."
"I think you're wrong. Even if you aren't, I don't care." Anna twists the belly of the axe. It spins the thorn at the King's neck. Pushing, he continues to crawl back towards the wall. Anna sees the sweat in his brow. It's hot in his chambers.
"You know I can't let you take it. This is our only chance. Lay it down, I will finish the job and you walk out of here future Queen of Arendelle. The Ruler of Summer. Try to take it and I will have you both killed." He knows the heat is his advantage. The Change of Seasons really is nothing in the heat. Anna could easily drop Her. She could accept, but its shallow breaths still push into Anna's bones. She trusts the cold is one word away.
"Are you so unwilling to give your daughters a chance, that you rather have them both be brought down?"
"Anna! It's not about that. I refuse to let this opportunity go to waste. Its defenses are lowered. You let it ice up again and we will lose this chance." This time Anna stops her warnings. When she pushes she draws blood.
"Father. I rather have every single soul in this castle, man, woman, or child, die in the hands of winter than give Her to you. That absolutely is a threat."
"You may be wielding that weapon but you do not have an upper hand here. I can best you Anna." The Princess pushes in deeper. To prove his point the King allows his skin to be pierced deeper.
"You wouldn't reason with me if you had no doubts. You understand if you underestimate me and you will die. Let us walk out of this castle. I can guarantee the seasons will be back on the calendar." Anna's father's top lips curls upwards, he shows his teeth.
"Your naivety is laughable. My death leads to yours, to its. You aren't in the position to negotiate." Anna knows the King is right. There is no way he did not give his guards even some sort of alert. Every moment Anna delays action she grows weaker.
"Fine, keep your life. Let us retreat to my suite. With time I can prove to you that the Change of Seasons is not a threat." The pause between them isn't silent. Each of their breaths give away their own distress, behind then there is a low rumble coming from outside the King's suites.
"You can go," Anna's father relent. "Know you won't leave there alive. Consider it your prison sentence and at the first sign of winter, your death sentence." The King steps aside, allowing the tip of the thorn to drag against his skin. The slice is superficial but it is more than enough for Anna to be tried for treason, killed for attempting to murder the King of Arendelle.
Anna does not turn her back to the King. She takes steps backwards towards the door, the heavy axe held out straight. She's so focused on her father that she allows the voice's head to knock against the door. The thud causes the guards to open her retreat. The Princess wastes a second to wince before she sidesteps through the doorway with her axe in ready position.
Anna hears the disturbance right away. There are chants and cries coming from the corridor from which she last entered. Before she came for the Change of Seasons the group was left in celebration. What Anna hears now is malcontent.
There is only one guard. He's the biggest of the two loyal men who have spent their life on opposite ends of the door to the King's chambers. He is ready for action, showing no apprehension to be toe to toe with someone he has sworn to protect. The King trumps all.
"Some unrest my King!" He calls over his shoulder as he puts his body in the middle of the threshold Anna has just escaped from. "Rumors that the Princess is in distress have spread. The men are holding back a mob at the top stairs."
Anna tries to understand the report. She knows that the Stranger has some sort of hand in this. She doesn't take this guard on, aware he is bound to the King's side. She ignores the weight bearing down on her shoulder as she withdraws towards the commotion. Whatever control the King's men had regained reignites at the sight of the Princess.
A unified distressed roar comes from her subjects as they once again test the blades pointed at them. The group's voice chants the Princess' name. Anna sees the Ice Harvester immediately. He is being held off by the guards in the middle of the melee. Meeting eyes with the Princess invigorates him.
"Anna!" His voice cuts through everyone's thunder. A closed fist to the neck of a guard gives him space to draw closer to his Princess. A small breech is made at the top of the stairs. More bodies make it past guards. The landing is quickly over crowded. To escape Anna needs the mob to move the opposite direction.
The Stranger reaches her side. He immediately bows next to her, offering his shoulder. The Change of Seasons changes hands as the Ice Harvester tosses the lifeless sack over him, mimicking Anna's hold on Her. The crowd is not hyper focused on Anna anymore. Their purpose suddenly only to riot as if they are predators made hungry by the long winter. They are awake now and suddenly summer is a threat. The King's men aren't knights anymore but easy prey.
The people are rabid. Some pull and yank at Anna, begging her to bless them, to answer them, and to notice them. Their crazy causes bystanders to turn on each other. Some Knights call to protect the Princess while others demand she is arrested. There is suddenly an explosion of madness that feels like a fever sleep. Anna turns the head of her weapon downwards using the shaft she strikes all, not trusting anyone to be anything other than foe.
The Ice Harvester keeps the voice held high as Anna wields the long rod of her weapon, pushing everyone back. She takes steps backwards in attempts to keep the distance growing.
"Where are you taking us?" The Stranger calls out.
"Prison," Anna answers sourly. Even without the fray it was inevitable she and the voice be locked up. As Anna pushes the Stranger back past the hall to the King's Chambers, she regrets that he will end up behind the bars. The best she can do is offer him a chance to evade.
"Run," The Princess admits defeat. She's barely spent any time in the royal corridors in the last few years but she's counted the steps since passing the sharp turn she used to make to find her mother. She's only a few long strides away from what used to be her bedroom.
She runs into the door as she moves full force. The knob clicks and she's suddenly in her old chambers. The Ice Harvester stands wide eyed at the doorway.
"Drop Her and go. There's nothing on this side of the door but the guillotine." Anna gasps as she yanks at the numb body on the Ice Harvestor's shoulder. He lets the Change of Seasons roll off him. Anna tries to catch the voice but barely manages to soften Her fall.
The Princess hears the door slam shut. The Stranger has chosen to stay on Anna's side of it. She watches him dumbly as he rushes over to a wardrobe and throws it off the wall. He shoves it towards the door and continues scouring the room, pulling whatever piece of furniture he finds against his built up barricade.
Anna leaves her axe and hoists up the voice, carrying Her to her old bed. She lays Her down gently before running through the bathhouse and into the dressing room. There she rushes to follow he stranger's lead, blocking them all in.
The Ice Harvester is locking the doors to the balcony when she reenters.
"What was that?" Anna asks him. She's out of breath. She didn't know that out of all things speaking would be what pains her side most. It all catches up to her. It isn't just her ribs. There isn't a single part of her that does not feel weak.
"You were taking too long. I was worried over what the King was capable of. It didn't take more than a word or two to get the crowd inflamed. I thought the distraction would thin out the guards against you." His determination does not falter. His knuckles are white, even behind a locked door he is ready for whatever is to come.
"I didn't mean that you idiot. Why are you here? You should have run!"
"I don't run from the girl with a death wish." Her keeper declares. Anna wants to lunge forward and beat her fists into his chest but she doesn't have the strength for it.
"The death wish is yours then!"
"So be it. There is no way I'm turning my back on you. Especially when you finally have what you want."
"I do." Anna calms. She hears what he really means. With her main objective over, he hopes she still might want him. He would be so easy to love, Anna thinks as she watches him with his back straight and his fists clenched. His chest is rising and falling at an alarming rate. There's no way his lungs are getting the oxygen they need. His passion is his weakness.
Anna drops her head. Not having to hold it up anymore shows her just how exhausted she really is. Night has fallen. She can see the full sky from the picturesque windows of her old suite. It's a view she hasn't seen in years but knows by memory. The Princess drags her feet and slowly lowers herself to sit next to the Change of Seasons.
"Thank you." She says to the Stranger. When she goes to look at him his gaze isn't on her. He's looking at the hollow naked body next to her. Anna brings her attention back to the voice. Maybe they would have gotten further, even away if She had been able to move on Her feet but Anna is relieved the voice had not experienced the frenzy nor the dead look in their father's eye as he condemned them both.
Maybe they would have been more likely to survive, still the crazed but innocent mob might have not been, if the Change of Seasons had been forced to use Her power. Anna places her hand on the voice's hip. She runs her palm in a circle testing the temperature. She's tepid, like the last sips of a forgotten cup of tea. It might as well be a fever compared to the cold radiating from Her before.
"Maybe you should stay in the dressing room." Anna suggests.
"I wasn't staring like that," The Stranger puts his hands up defensively. His face suddenly red. Anna doesn't have to be told to know it's true. The Change of Seasons raw body has nothing someone else would alluring to it. The only thing it stirs is sympathy.
"I know. I just don't know when She'll wake. And She doesn't like you much."
"Me?"
"She could see us." Anna's words don't resonate with the Stranger. She rolls her eyes at him. "She doesn't like that we have sex."
"Oh!" The shade of red gets impossibly brighter. The Stranger shifts in his boots still unsure if he should leave. "Why would that matter?"
Anna doesn't miss a beat. Her answer is not something she carries any shame about. She has few truths that belong to her, and none that matter more than this.
"Because Her and I have sex." The Princess watches the Ice Harvester swallow.
"But you know now that she's your-"
"My everything!" Anna defends far too briskly. She tries softening "She's my everything."
Although Anna did wish the Stranger had taken his chance with the mob and the King's men, she is still relieved he's here with her. She's less afraid with him on this side of the door. Anna might be okay with death, but protecting the Change of Seasons feels so much easier knowing that she, herself, is being protected. Nonetheless, the Princess of Arendelle's words dig a blade into her Stranger's chest all over again.
"I see."
"The guards won't test the doors unless there is a change in the cold. If there are any signs of Winter we're done. I need you to give me space with the Change of Seasons. On our lives, we cannot let Her get upset." Anna reaches out the Ice Harvester but he pulls back before she can touch him, not giving her the satisfaction of comforting him.
"I'm sorr-"
"Don't." He cuts off hot and does as he was told. He exits through the bathhouse, slamming the door. Anna could have used his help with her corset. She drops on her back. The guilt she feels simmers almost immediately as she turns her head and meets the voice's calm face.
Everything else ceases to exist, ceases to matter. It feels like the entire room and the unrest on the other side of it, all floats up and away like the snow that covered the voice's stockade had. The only things that are real to Anna are the parts of the bed her body is in contact with and her tired sister.
Anna just stares at Her. They are both on their sides, facing one another. Anna has pulled at the Change of Seasons and put her in a position that makes her sickly body look less exposed and less small. The Princess reflects Her with her own body, both her hands tucked under her own cheek.
Exhaustion calls on Anna but it doesn't take her to rest. Even with great effort the Princess cannot keep her eyes shut. She needs sleep but all she wants is to look at the voice.
She notices ice starting to return at the Change of Seasons' ears. Without watching to see how it expands, Anna immediately gets her skin on the cold. She pushes it back. All the watching turns into high alert, catching the ice as it begins to reappear.
Anna spends what feels like hours running her hands wherever it seems to creep back. Yet not far into it, she notices that the ice only returns in places the Change of Season most eagerly responded to Anna before. The Princess relaxes, she halts her rushed strokes and caresses the cold. It feels like she is returning every icy touch the voice has ever given her. Anna indulges, stroking both cold and skin. She finally lets her eyes close to focus on one singular sense.
There's so much darkness behind her eyes that it all feels like a dream. The Princess doesn't need to see to know it is snowing again. She can feel individual snowflakes land sporadically on her skin. They sit on her much like her own freckles do, each individual and apart from one another. The temperature has lowered to sit just right. The stories on them don't melt away.
Anna inhales. The icy air is the voice's touch reaching inside her again. The Change of Seasons is awake. Anna drifts away, unaware of the parts of her past lying between her and her sister, and certainly not caring.
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Hi my baby elephants! Hope you guys enjoy this installment! I don't know why I think these chapters will get easier the more I write. xD But this one was a big one hope it doesn't disappoint.
The response to the last chapter was really motivating. It carried me through for sure! Really exciting to see some of you so into it! Thanks for the reviews guys. It's sooo appreciated.
Reza- This is to be known as my cliffhanger story. But when it ends like that I will try to write faster ha!
Chaks - Thanks for commenting along! I light up when I see you've written. I think about what you will like and the questions you pose me really help the process! TY
Guest (ride or die guest) - E! I'm excited you're here until the bitter end! What you said about the last chapter had me floating on air for two days when I should have been writing. Heh.
Snowmanmelting - T.T I'm so emotional after that one. Dude. Thank you so much for your support. I literally wrote and rewrote the start of this chapter sooo many times and your review came in and I pulled out my DOC and suddenly had my moment and wrote this whole thing on that high. (no lie man) it means a lot. Especially from a new friend. Ps. D: sorry about the icest!