Tiny Elephants
Chapter 9: Reset
By: SheAlwaysDies
There is something in her teeth halting the scream that needs to be released. The urge is brought upon by pain, unlike anything she has ever felt before. It woke her from a sleep that was likely her calmest. It has her thrashing at the contrast but her body is unable to move, also restricted by something, something cold. The only things that can recoil are her insides. Her heart takes the lead as it sounds an alarm. The only outward reaction she has is the tears that squeeze out of her closed eyes.
The pain is in her chest. Her internal voice is wailing but it doesn't drown a succession of pops. Each one hits a new level of hurt. It's so cold inside her and not in the smoothing way she has come to love. This feels like it is trying to rearrange her bones. The grinding, like the gears of a clock, stops but the chill stays embedded.
"There," comes a triumphant coo. Anna feels a relax around her. Whatever was in her throat shrinks and turns into ice-cold water. Anna chokes on it in surprise. Her body is allowed to cough and tense as it strives for composure. The convulsions pain her chest, but it's more of a dull ache now. She's free to move, with the exception that she is still being held down at the pelvis.
The Princess opens her eyes. The Change of Seasons is perched on top of her. She is smiling. Her skin is soft and fresh. The only trace of ice now is on her cheeks; gilded snowflakes frost her. Anna finishes her cough, finally swallowing the snow that had her shut up and made her unable to grit her teeth while trying to endure the pain. She might have bitten her tongue clean off if she'd been able to brace herself.
"How's that feel?" the voice asks with a cocked head and expectant eyebrows. Anna has just felt something akin to what it might be like to be killed but she nods her head affirmatively, still very unaware of what's just happened.
"The realignment of your ribs will allow them to heal properly. The ice inside you will hold them in place. You'll be sore and cold until you aren't anymore."
"How'd you know to do that?" Anna asks as she looks down at herself. She's flat on her back and apparently slept through having her funeral grab removed. The Change of Seasons did not even leave Anna's slip on. She's completely naked save for her underwear. The Princess refuses to look up because, well, so is the voice.
Anna is currently feeling a new extreme on the very far opposite end of the spectrum of pain. She thought she'd gotten some control of her breath, but her pulse kicks back in. The voice doesn't seem to notice.
"I broke my fist once. Each finger, each bone. I passed the time trying to set it right," the voice says so without realizing the implication of Her statement. All Anna hears is pain, but She is perched in Her own satisfaction. She opens Her right hand out in between them and spreads Her fingers like five points on a star. They are long and slender, a true indication that the Change of Seasons is not meant to be so small. No, with hands like those She would have been many things, maybe a pianist or an archer. Instead, She sits weightlessly on Anna recounting that She passed the time breaking Herself.
Rebuilding Herself, too, Anna adds to her thoughts. Because to see Her just as frail is a mistake. There is so much power sitting behind those fingers. Anna sees flashes of an ominous blue as the Change of Seasons wiggles Her hand, showing off the range of motion.
"Thank you," Anna says with a cough. She tries to chalk it up to her previous choke but as she lays she cannot recall ever feeling any pain.
Her body is buzzing as the Princess takes in the vision on top of her. Anna looks past the starving and sees a gleam. It's not just the pulses of blue magic that spread, coming and going like a deep breath, frosted starbursts that swell under the Change of Seasons skin. The beauty there is more human. Anna looks past the flesh illuminating like the first day of snowfall, when the flakes are fat and plentiful enough to build up over the ground, and sees a girl. In the far recesses of Anna's memories, before winter was something Arendellians feared, the first snowfall was Anna's most favourite thing.
The feeling of winter is sitting atop the Princess now, personified and radiant. Anna feels her heart pang into her healing rib cage and for the first time in Anna's recollection, it doesn't hurt to love. Nothing else matters, not even the unfairness of being ripped apart from this entity. Anna is smiling like a fool. Outside the barrier of cold, the voice enshrouded her in, is a looming death sentence and Anna cannot bring herself to care.
Her staring may have escalated too intensely because the Change of Seasons adds a pink hue to Her deathly white skin. She looks away. Anna wants to touch Her but the ceasing eye contact diminishes her confidence. The way Anna is pinned leaves her few options, it's either stroke or lay still. Anna does the latter as silence settles between them.
It does not seem to bother the Change of Seasons, whose eyes chose to take in the bedroom. Anna watches them bounce around a bit before she does the same. She has not been in her quarters in years. The King had ordered that Anna's space be returned to her as he desperately tried to rebuild her image. It is still in transition, things that never belonged to Anna scattered here and there.
There are only slight differences in the room but they are enough to make it feel like a new space entirely. The only constant is her giant four-post bed and the painted pink embellishments on the walls but even those seem colour faded and scratched up.
The furniture has all been replaced, likely sold off and downgraded to much cheaper fixtures. Anna eyes them all piled up by the door, a poorly assembled barricade. The quality of the craftsmanship sucks. What seemed like a sufficient barrier in her exhaustion looks feeble now. Useless.
The King has not tried the doors. So far he is true to his word. They are not in any immediate danger, only captives. That makes Anna want to ball her fists up and kick the heels of her feet into the bed. She's done nothing for the Change of Seasons except upgraded Her stay in the stockade. Anna does not know where to begin to fix this.
"Are you well?" The voice curls Her back forward and leans in closer to the Princess. When Anna snaps her neck back to answer their noses graze.
"I—" Anna cannot think straight as the Change of Seasons looks down at her with a slight smile. It's nonchalant. She looks like an illustration in a children's novel, a forest nymph offering sweets and honey.
Anna has to fight the urge to lean into the fuzziness in her head when their freckles align and their eyes meet. In this state, there is no other world. Anna feels like a child begging for nectar and the nymph is obliging. Anna can feel the cold start to creep from where the Change of Seasons thighs sink into her. The voice is still far too close to Anna for her to get a look at how the magic originates, but she feels the familiar ice start to make its way along her skin.
It's moving languishingly. The Change of Seasons doesn't blink as Anna shudders against the sensation moving up and taking extra care at Anna's ribs. It creeps up the fat of Anna's breasts and inches towards her nipples. The delight is suddenly terrifying.
"I'm well!" Anna blurts out as her hesitation engulfs her anticipation. The ice cracks as if a heavy boot pressed into Anna's abdomen. It falls off at Anna's sides like shards. The Change of Seasons lifts Herself up and in a bound is on the edge of the bed.
Anna is light headed and dizzy as she shoots up too quickly. "I'm sorry," she pleads but the voice sinks down, running Her back against the edge of the bed and sliding down on the floor. It does not go unnoticed by Anna that Her neck started to ice up before She curled up into Herself.
A string of curses begs Anna to be let out and of course, only now she has enough composure to control herself.
"Can I come closer?" The only part of the Change of Seasons Anna can see is Her matted wild white hair and it shakes in a way that is neither affirmative nor denying the Princess. Anna stays put. She drops her head into her hands hoping that the dizziness might fade away.
She speaks into her palms. "I have always wanted to see You and feel You in this way. But it's so overwhelming now," the Princess admits. The Change of Seasons says nothing but not seeing Her now proves helpful. With her eyes covered it's almost like the darkness of the attic. Anna tries to lean into the comfort familiarity holds. She moves audibly along the mattress and sinks down mimicking the voice's position on the opposite side of the bed.
"How's that?" she asks the room.
"Okay." The recreation is not quite right, even with the shyness behind the voice, Anna can hear Her clearly. There is no distortion. The voice she knows so well, with its sweet rasp, feels so real to her at this moment. Uncloaked, Anna realizes she is talking to a Princess.
And she doesn't know what to say.
This was never a problem in the attic. In the attic, conversation was plentiful even if the voice was quiet on any given day.
"Why the attic? Or I guess how the attic? What the attic?" Anna is relieved she put some distance between her and the voice. She is beat red now. The voice chuckles but the sound stops abruptly when She considers the question.
"Some-times," She says with a slight stutter. The voice has never done so before. "I tested myself. It was the only place I could push the cold and learn what I could control. Where no one could see or get hurt."
Not only can Anna hear Her clearly, but She also speaks with a clarity that is normally distorted. The voice always seemed a bit dumbstruck or disconnected. Anytime Anna asked a question a great confusion took hold. The Change of Seasons seems sure of her answer and also hesitant to give it.
Still, She has never really denied Anna anything if it is in Her power to give. The Princess is well aware of that as the voice continues, "the more cold I poured in there the more I could feel the space, then smell the dust and hear the creaking of the wood when it wrapped at my drop in temperature. Eventually, I could see it. I'd never tried my voice there until I saw you."
"You recognized me then," Anna points out. That was right before the last soft winter Anrendelle ever saw. The Change of Seasons knew more back then. It knew Anna. When the Princess eventually returned that was barely the case. Maybe if Anna had asked the voice Her name then, Anna would know it now.
"I lost a lot along the way," She says sadly. "I only saw you like a shadow that can barely make out in the dark. When we were together I would force all my power into that space, just to sense you better. But I had never gotten to look at you, not really, until just now, while you were fast asleep." The Change of Seasons lets out a sigh. Anna has barely heard Her breaths before. It does not sound downcast but wistful. The voice is content to be in this prison Anna concludes.
"I'm sorry about your clothes." The apology both makes Anna's muscle go taut and insides mush. She'd assumed the disrobing was so that the Change of Seasons could better heal her, now She's implied She wanted to see Anna in this state. Anna has given her body. She's had it taken. But her nudity has always remained hers, that is until now. The idea of being so used but still having something to offer comforts her while it also has her reeling.
"It's nothing." Anna's nervous laughter is enough to brush off the comment. She hears the Change of Season shift Her position. The Princess doesn't look back but she guesses the voice has pulled Herself back onto the bed. Anna reaches her hands behind her, placing her palms on the duvet and lifts herself up without turning her body.
"When you weren't there, I spread out to find you." At the admission, Anna feels the bed shift. The Change of Seasons scoots closer into the middle of the bed. Anna does so right after, maintaining her body pointed away.
"I put too much into it," She continues, again reducing the distance between them. Anna follows.
"I lost control." They both almost make it to the centre.
"I broke all my promises." The final motion they make, they do so together as their backs meet. The voice has tossed her hair over her shoulder, nothing obstructs their skin. To Anna, it is cool and relaxing. She hopes it is warm and welcoming to the Change of Seasons. Her final admission has Her crying. Anna can feel the sobs roll up Her spine. She can feel the bones dig into her own meaty back.
"I, I thought about killing you." If control is the Change of Seasons' greatest shame, Anna shares hers. The entity pressed against her stops Her crying. Anna feels each vertebra react as they align and stack up straight, coming into full contact with the Princess. "I don't know for how long but I thought I might do it. I know I spent my time away thinking it, even wanting to... Like really wanting to kill you."
Anna is vibrating as if her body is falling into hypothermic shock. She speaks through gritted teeth, needing to get it out but not wanting to. "I pictured how I would touch you. How I would- Rip. You. Apart."
"You might still have to kill me," the voice speaks evenly. "You're still in danger. I could hurt you."
"I won't." The Change of Seasons takes in a deep breath and releases it. Anna takes the second one with her. They move with one another. Shoulders rising as they together try to find some control.
"I've decided. I won't do it. If I am to die I don't care. I got to have you. I got to see you. I still don't remember you but I barely care. This is enough. This feeling is all I ever wanted." After her declaration Anna lets herself look at the Change of Seasons. She is already gazing at the Princess. They both strain to look over their shoulders. The voice's face shows off the upturn of her lips.
"I'd die at peace too." The voice agrees. Her neck is well iced up, past her jawline and down her square shoulders. Anna twists her body to pull closer so that her mouth might meet the cold. She places her lips on the barrier the voice built up with Her guilt and thaws it with her kiss. Anna reveals a few birthmarks and commits them to memory. If she is in danger of death, they are something she wants to remember. She does not believe for a second that she will die under the Change of Seasons power, but by her father's hand or the swords of his men, it is terribly likely.
Anna wants to remember more than a voice. She does not want to die with shame or fear; she's lived with it enough. She doesn't want to hate that she wants to keep her kiss going. With permission, the Princess vows not to.
"Do you remember we're sisters?" she asks when the blue of the Change of Seasons' eyes land on her. The voice clenches Her teeth together. She turns to look forward. Anna sits back down, squaring off their shoulders once more.
"I'm scared you won't like my response to that," She says.
"We've always talked to each other. Say what you want." The Change of Seasons nods. She pulls in a breath of cold air. Anna waits expectantly. Her body is in a ready position as if she was at the start line of a race. All she wants is for the voice to say go.
There is ice suddenly at Anna's ankles. It snakes up at her legs, rushing at her surprisingly. It skirts up Anna fast, spreading exponentially.
"I do."
The Princess is given her go ahead, but the ice has rigged the race. It's not a fair game as Anna's body falls into the sensation of the cold she has more than lusted for. Her back arches. Anna presses the back of her head into the middle of the Change of Seasons' shoulder blades. The Princess gives in, she puts up no fight as she gifts the voice her body, just as She gives Anna Her touch.
It is a sensation like no other, the prickling of her flesh, goosebumps adding friction to the coating on her skin. The Change of Seasons uses her power as if it were Her hands. It feels like having a hundred men worshipping the Princess. Hearing Anna's sudden onslaught of moans, makes the voice add some tact to her magic. It does not only coat the Princess but moves with an ebb. It runs up Anna's body like the crash of a wave then reseeds. When it crawls back up it rises higher, engulfing her hips, and sides, stroking her breasts and diving into the dips at her clavicle as if the tide was coming in.
Anna knows that the minute it reaches her mouth, the Change of Seasons will enter her core as well. She has her hands flat on the bed, gripping the covers. Her body has no balance. She's bucked away from the voice as she's lost control of her thrashing. The Princess is being held up by trembling fingers and the back of the voice's neck, where Anna's head digs in.
The Change of Season is under an even control. Anna is unsure how She maintains it, so different from Anna, whose head lulls to the side and rolls on Her shoulder. Anna tilts her neck and digs her face in the crook of the voice's. The ice there scatters as Anna laps the skin now accessible to her.
Through lidded eyes, the Princess watches the Change of Seasons' peripheral orchestrate her power. She keeps Her chest puffed out as if she has not swallowed her last breath. Her eyes are shut and Her bottom lip has cracked open Her mouth slightly. Anna knows what sensations to expect and she wants it so badly. Her knees fall onto the bed, opening her up. She wants to beg but she's too far gone to know how to work any part of herself other than her desire. Her words do not turn into demands but grumbling moans. They encourage the Change of Seasons just the same.
The plunge comes as the voice reaches back and places both her hands above Anna's. Anna used to believe the voice was inside her. At one point she'd laughed at her much younger self for being so incapable of rationale. But as the Change of Seasons dives between her legs, Anna realizes that this feeling is very much like taking a lung full of the cold air in the attic.
At Anna's teeth, where the Princess nibbles and kisses the corner of the voice's jawline, the ice starts to make its way down Anna's throat. It spreads out into her stomach, pulling down to meet the opposite end of the cold. There, the cold is stroking, it pushes into her deeper, it fills her up.
Within her, just like her childish notions believed Her to be, the Change of Seasons makes Herself very much a part of Anna. Truly, She always has been. There may have been a separation but the connection was constant. Every time the voice said I'm in here, She'd been referring to the link that tethers them, that starts from the Change of Seasons power and finds its way to the Princess.
"Anna," the voice gasps out. The Princess realizes that the trembling in her own body is matched by the Change of Seasons. To Anna, it's almost lame that all she can muster to return is her lips of a small piece of skin when there is barely anything left of Anna exposed. But the Princess long ago lost her sensitivity to touch, and She has spent a decade deprived of it.
The voice hums as Anna laces her tongue up higher behind Her ear. It piques the Princess' want to discover. She knows the voice so well finding a new way She can chime is exhilarating. She really does enjoy her ears touched, Anna muses triumphantly. The small sound of pleasure is met with a falter in Her magic, it causes a slowdown.
The break in intensity gives Anna a chance to twist at the hip. With the added leverage she can really sink her teeth into the tendons in the voice's neck. Anna takes back one of her hands to cross it over herself and lands it on the other side of the voice's head. She uses her fingers to force the voice to turn to Anna. She lets her lips follow the movement and only hesitates when they reach the voice's own.
There is no ice present here. The Change of Seasons doesn't need to be defrosted. Anna has no excuse to put her lips on Hers other than pleasure.
"Anna," the voice whispers once more. The Princess feels Her cold breath as She rattles the name out again. "Ah," She starts to say but Anna swallows the other end of her call.
Anna toys with Her mouth, sucking and pulling. Her tongue grazes the inside of the voice's lips. They have a conversation of long drawn out mewls and moans. The Princess reaches a peak. It hits her slow and heavy, spreading out of her as if it was cool fog. It pushes out the ice. When the cold runs out of her mouth, she loses contact with the voice. Her head rolls back onto Her shoulder and falls further onto the mattress.
The cold leaves Anna completely, only to meet her again when the Change of Seasons drops Her body down and lands Her head on Anna's stacked knees. Anna pushes herself forward, looking for more points of contact. She wraps herself around the voice's supine pose. She presses her forehead right below the voice's knee and tosses her arm over Her thighs. A hand comes down to Anna's face and strokes her cheek before diving into her hairline.
"Does that answer your question?" the Change of Seasons asks. Anna looks down towards Her. The entity is smiling. Anna had always been able to hear the glee in Her voice but to see it is something else entirely.
"I have no idea what we were even talking about," Anna chuckles. The Change of Seasons chastises her with a light yank of her hair.
"Ow, ow," the Princess exclaims as her abs stitch along with her laughter. She grabs at her chest.
"Oh now, your ribs hurt," the voice rolls her eyes. Anna wants to squeal as she takes in Her face. It is so expressive. It is saying things that are so very much like the back and forth they have always shared but paired with talkative blue eyes and chastising eyebrows. Anna already knew she loved the voice. But watching it nuzzle and bask in their shared contact the Princess settles with the idea that she is in love with the Change of Seasons.
She pulls herself onto her side and faces Anna better. The blue of magic is pulsating sporadically under her skin. It's a light show much like Arendellians skies are famous for. When it lights up under Anna's cheek she tilts to peck at the power. The voice giggles and twitches a bit.
"Are you ticklish?" Anna asks as she skits her lips along the responsive flesh.
"What? I don't even know what that is," She's laughing. Her body instinctually braces itself as Anna tests the spot next to Her knees once more. Anna almost gets capped in the face as the voice thrashes. Her giggle is throaty, a sound only made possible by physical contact. Anna pushes her luck and adds her fingers to the onslaught. She gets the Change of Seasons high on Her thighs.
"Yes, I am to whatever this is!" The voice concedes as She bucks against the feathered attack. She seemingly refuses to evade like any other would when trying to regain themselves. She doesn't want to be further away from Anna.
"But I want to keep you touching you," the Princess pleads. They both realize what Anna means at the same moment. Anna winces but the Change of Seasons bites her bottom lip and nods.
Anna suddenly doesn't know what to do with her desire now that she's honed in on it. Touching Her was just so easy, but it now feels monumental. Her own body is still feeling the lingering effects of the very capable and confident way the voice stroked her. Yet Princess does know how she wants to take Her. She hopes by fulfilling her fantasy it might do so for the Change of Seasons.
The glow of the voice's power is not pulsating under her skin as much anymore. The illumination bursts sparsely. Anna watches the snowflakes appear on Her skin here and there as she wills away her nerves. The Change of Seasons is giving Anna a face. It's lustful and eager but still, Her patience is not tested. No, the being that waited for Anna a lifetime lays cozily expectant.
Anna takes her hand down from its spot and runs is down the path of the voice's body, making its way to where Anna can smell her sex. It's almost blatant that Anna will find excitement there, still, she is surprised by the slick cold as she allows her fingers to dive in.
The voice sucks a breath back and lifts her knee to give the Princess better access. It's more than enough to snuff out Anna's trepidation. She only needs to curl herself forward to bring her mouth to the Change of Season's centre. She uses her fingers to flare out the skin so that her tongue can have free range of the pink.
The voice's mewls are guttural. Her meek fingers dig into the meat on Anna's legs with an impressive force as She begins to rock against Anna's tongue. The Princess takes a mouthful of wet as her tongue rims the opening feeding her. She dives into it, immediately noting a hint of warmth.
"Anna," The voice does not have to plead with her to ask for more. Anna quickly brings her hand to her mouth. She enters Her, discovering the jump in temperature. She thrusts in deep, loving the contrast between the ice she sucks on the human core. Anna is very aware of the switch that occurs within the voice as She starts to reach orgasm. The warmth clenches Anna's finger and rides it as the peak begins to crash. A moan from the voice hitches.
Her release comes a scream. A piercing and howling cold that makes Anna feel like she is the one that holds all the power. She sucks back on the wet curls once more but stays inside of the Change of Seasons. The voice's eyes unstitch as She bucks. She looks down at the Princess in disbelief.
As Anna watches Her come. She realizes that she may be at peace with death, but she wants to prolong it as far as possible. She might die complete, but at this moment she becomes gluttonous. She wants for nothing, except more. Anna knows her survival instincts aren't pretty but she knows she will do whatever it takes to get out of this roo.
Anna feels the world they have made for themselves in this bed gets taken away from them as a door crashes open. The body around her finger clenches and with a bound disconnects from the Princess.
"Anna!" A male voice yells into the bed chambers. Its alarm drops the temperature down to unbearable, even for Anna who has learned to be less than bothered by the cold.
Instantly a wind picks up. There is no snowfall, the powder appears in a flash and spirals viciously. Anna panics. She gets to her knees and seeks out the voice. She's overcast the entire space. A figure as white as the Change of Seasons is perfectly camouflaged in the sudden storm.
The Stranger has entered the room. Anna can barely make him out. He is calling for the Princess desperately. Of course, a scream lured him out of his hideout. The storm is pushing at him. The voice has eyes on the ice harvester too.
"It's okay!" Anna tries calling but her voice gets carried away in the wind. "We're safe." But the Princess is very unsure of that statement. If this cold is anywhere but the bedroom the King's men will come for them.
Anna leaps off the bed and heads towards the Stranger. As she nears him she sees an ice pick in hands. He brings it up, ready to attack. The blowing snow instantly couples with shards of ice. The Change of Seasons has weapons too.
Anna jumps out at the ice harvester. He swings at her but she anticipated his reaction and ducks down low wrapping her arms around his waist. Her momentum slams him into the wall. She grabs at the pick and lowers the weapon.
"Anna!" The stranger calls out in recognition as he takes in his naked attacker. "Have they come for us? Where is the Change of Seasons? Are you okay?" His questions come out like one long word.
"Everything was fine." Anna rips the pickaxe out of his hands. He's been scathed. The ice has sliced at this skin. Thin beads of blood trail his face. They don't fall down this face but are pushed across it in the same brash direction the heavy wind blows.
Anna pushes her body into him because the ice avoids her bare skin. He ducks his head into her shoulder accepting her protection.
"I thought you were in trouble." He says into her hold.
"I know," Anna responds. She knows that their hiding is over now. Her life with the Change of Seasons has been reduced to a handful of hours.
"Stay low, protect any exposed skin," Anna tells the ice harvester. She knows he does not need to be told. He can handle himself in a storm. "I'll try to put a stop to this."
With that Anna faces the wind. She can feel the voice losing her control of the tempest She's started. It slams up against Anna, no longer giving her a pass for being in the Change of Seasons' heart. The ice is dull now, pelting from above instead of pointed blades. Anna tries to cover her head with her arms as she advances to where she can safely assume she will find the voice.
She pushes towards the corner of her bedroom closest to the bed. She follows the walls. In all the white she finally makes out a burst of angry blue. She is curled into Herself just as Anna expected her to be. She's tiny, not fully covered by ice. She's spread her power over herself in the same places a knight's armour protects its master. Her hair rushes in the wind, blowing upwards as if the mighty gust is emanating from the cowering entity.
Anna could call out for Her but touch is a new tool she has with the voice. So once she reaches Her she drops her hand to cup Her face.
"I'm here," Anna reassures as the Change of Seasons lifts Her gaze to meet the Princess.
"It's alright. No one's come for us. Not yet." Anna kneels down in front of Her. She drops her forehead on the Change of Seasons' furrowed brow. "We're still safe."
The voice exhales a shaky breath. Her fear is not a look Anna likes and so she rubs her thumbs into Her temples waiting to bring back the simple glee She has worn freely for Anna.
"Are you hurt?" She asks Anna. The Princess has a mounting goose egg that proves her a liar as she shakes her head no. But Anna feels the temperature start to level out. The whipping of the wind settles as the voice takes in deep breaths. The visibility returns but the Change of Seasons' smile does not.
"Is everything alright?" the stranger asks. The voice tenses and pushes her back deeper into the corner. Anna shushes the frail being in her hands.
"Don't you worry. This is a friend. He's helped me. He's here to help us." Anna feels the stranger take tentative steps forward. She looks back at him and he has Anna's dress bunched up in his hands. She hasn't really thought about her nudity. The Princess stands and approaches the offering. The stranger closes his eyes and tilts his head away.
Anna yanks it out of his grab, detangling her cape from the bundle. A small thud hits the ground but Anna pays it no mind as she drapes her cloak over the Change of Seasons' shoulders. She accepts the covering with an unsure look, but since Anna has given it to Her the voice says nothing.
The Princess turns her bareback to the entity. With her own dress pressed against her front, she addresses the stranger. She wants to reprimand him but she knows she'd have done the same thing.
"How much damage do you think we've done?" The ice harvester does not register Anna's questioning. The Princess takes in the rising sky from out the balcony window. The peak of the North Mountain is in clear view. It is the only touch of snow in the panorama. It looks like the start of a picturesque summer morning.
"It's still nice out," Anna says hopefully. The voice doesn't pay her statement much mind either from her huddled corner.
Anna's words reach neither of her cellmates. The stranger has his focus on the leather-bound book that slipped out of the Princess of Arendelle's gown.
"Why do you have this?" He demands an answer. The meek look of culpability on his face when he approached is far gone.
"It's my father's," Anna answers. She snatches at it almost losing the grab covering her in her attempt. The Stranger does not let her have it.
"These are the names read out at the Annual Remembrance Memorial. You shouldn't have this. She shouldn't be in possession of this." It is not lost on Anna that this has struck yet another chord on the ice harvester. Anna is aware that all Arendellians have likely directly had someone taken from them, overcome by the winter.
"That's not for you to say," Anna counters. She tries to go for the book again but the stranger holds it up high. She jumps for it but fails. The Princess lets go of her gown. She kicks her heel into the Stranger's shin. He fumbles slightly as he grimaces in pain. With a slight hop, the list of names is back in Anna's hands.
"That belongs to the families," the ice harvester claims.
"What is he talking about?" the voice asks Anna. Her curiosity has Her head up and out of Her shell but She is holding Herself more tightly as She watches the duo squabble.
"It's nothing," Anna dismisses. The Stranger, however, does not back down. He addresses the Change of Seasons with a pointed finger.
"That book honours every life taken by your winters," he presses hotly. The Change of Seasons' eyes go wide and jump over to the binding in Anna's hands. The stranger turns back to the Princess. "How dare you hide what she's done? How dare you try to erase them?"
"This isn't on Her." Anna wills herself to remain calm, for the voice's sake and Hers only. "She's not at fault."
"Can I see?" the voice tries to interject.
"You can say that because you've never carried a frozen corpse back into the castle." The ice harvester brings closed fists down to his thighs as he recounts his grief passionately.
"I've read the names. I understand better than you why they were lost." Anna sees why he is so ardent. Even looking at him almost proves his point. His clothing has remnants of ice embedded in the fibres. Melting onto him does not look ominous but the blood marring his face and even the back of his hands from trying to protect himself from the Change of Seasons makes Her look like a monster. She was just afraid, Anna reasons.
"How many?" The Change of Seasons remains ignored.
"If not the Change of Seasons herself then who? Who would you blame Anna?" For a long time the answer to that question, Anna felt was, she, herself. She has just tasted love and therefore knows better.
"Not who, what." The Stranger rolls his eyes at her.
"What then? What killed my comrades if not the winter."
"Fear." Anna is steadfast with her answer.
"That's a cop-out, Anna." He upturns his nose. His eyes wander towards the ceiling as he shakes his head, almost as if laughing with the Gods about her sureness.
"Oh, you think so? We were fine in this very room until you spooked us. But you didn't fear for your life did you? No, because you love me and you trust me. The swirling storm stopped for the exact same reason. Because the Change of Seasons and I love and trust each other. We can't blame the cold for what has happened in Arendelle."
"You hear that?" Anna turns back to the voice. It is against all of their chances of survival for the Change of Seasons to fall into shame, to fear what She has done and can do. "There is such a simple solution to the Winter. The only thing that's really hard to beat is fear."
Anna finishes by stepping back up to the ice harvester. "You were there the night, tell me where the fear came from and you'll know whose hands are red."
The Stranger drops his chin. He admits defeat with a slight nod of his head. He looks down at his own hands. Anna knows they are the cleanest in the room. She thinks about her will to survive this and vows to do anything in her power to assure her keeper stays as he is now.
"I'm sorry," he says.
"I'm sorry for all those you lost." Anna reaches her hand out to his shoulder. His gaze shoots up.
"Are you alright?" The ice harvester is looking past Anna. She whips around to see what has him suddenly concerned. The Change of Seasons' eyes are the only part of her peering out of the cloak. The material is visibly shaking as She bores her stare into the book in Anna's hands. The Princess drops it and falls onto her knees before Her. She pushes back the hood to reveal the voice's face. It contorted.
"I am scared, Anna. I'm going to keep doing it aren't l?"
"Once," Anna answers honestly. "You're going to do it once more. And we are going to get out of here and the only thing that's going to be left is love."
"I don't want to." The Princess of Arendelle knows they will fail without the Change of Seasons commanding their escape. She puts her hands over the cloak, pressing into each of Her shoulders.
"Are you hungry?" Anna feels cheap as she tries to reason with the voice's power.
"What?" She asks so innocently.
"Are you hungry now?" The Princess says again. She makes her tone firm.
"Very," the Change of Seasons admits with very little need to reflect.
"We can't survive here indefinitely like you did before. I mean sure you could ice up again and your body would want for nothing but I could never touch you. And I'm already pretty hungry too." The voice has not seen its own humanity in a long time. Anna can tell. The lonely years She spent while the Princess was in Corona took a great toll on Her. She is certain the armour has little to do with protection and was crafted to ice up the pain, to be less human, child, and sister. To more fully become the Change of Seasons.
"You're scared but we can't stay in this corner. Vermin like to stick to the walls. They'll reach us here eventually."
"I already feel like I'm covered in rats." The voice shivers again. Anna rubs the length of her arms trying to dispel the chill.
"But you're bigger than them. You don't have to be afraid, El. But it's okay if you are. Cause even if you run in fear you will crush them." The Change of Seasons pushes Her thin lips together. It's a small act but it proves Her confidence in the Princess.
"Like an elephant?" She offers up. If Anna agrees she knows that the two have just made a promise to one another. They are both willing to die for another.
"Exactly like an elephant." Now they are both willing to kill too.
Anna turns her head back at the Ice Harvester. He looks wary. He is scared of what the Princess has just made this all-powerful being agree to. Anna is willing to manipulate the fear to live a long life with the Change of Seasons.
"Where's my axe? We're leaving here."
999
So it's been a month. My apologies, my baby elephants. I focused on finishing Equal Parts of a Whole. Which is now complete and out of the way of this story. It turned out pretty okay, so if you haven't read it give it a try.
This is meant to be the second last chapter of Tiny Elephants. I will give you guys a heads up on my next post if the conclusion of the next chapter ends up being split. For now, brace yourself that my next post is the finale.
Thanks for your patience and your reviews and support. I would love to hear from you to get the strength to finish this thing just right.
PHEW! Let's do THIS!
Iskandar- I think for sure that pressed against such a difficult choice that the King's actions were never meant to be malicious. The years of suffering this have changed him. I think he had no right way to fix anything for his daughters. He suffers a similar enough fate with his choices in canon.
Snowmanmelting- I forgot to take you up on this offer, and one whole month later here we are. I hope I'm better motivated now *sweats*
Guest (slow thawing comment) - Your review of this chapter was the sweetest of all, I was so excited to hear what resonated with you and was glad that I was able to make you feel that way towards it. Thank you for saying so.
Monkeyleaf - you will know good enough. Wish our girls luck!