Author's Note:
Hello Fan Fiction Readers,
If you have somehow stumbled onto this story then, first let me offer my sincere gratitude for reading it. This is my first ever writing project and I have been contemplating on whether or not to write it for about a year. Until now finally the first chapter is done. Please enjoy the story and when you are done I would love to hear your honest feed back.
A.N 3/17/15:
I just finished a major edit for this chapter. I reformatted it so hopefully the dialogue is easier for readers to follow, as well as fixed a continuity error that had slipped by me. hope you enjoy the new and improved chapter 1. And again your review are appreciated. I love to hear feedback on how you like my story.
Now without further ado please enjoy the chapter.
The Ice Queen in Konohagakure
Ch. 1 Welcome to Konohagakure
Laughter rang through the great hall as two young girls gleefully slid around on the icy floor. Suddenly the younger one ran to the top of one of the snow drifts that were randomly piled around and screamed,
"Catch me Elsa."
With reckless abandon she launched herself into the air completely trusting her sister to catch her. Elsa quickly threw her hands out shooting a spray of icy energy that formed a pile of snow just a little higher than the one her sister had jumped off of. This went on for a few more jumps each more wild than the last.
"Anna, slow down," Elsa pleaded. But the little girl was too caught up in the fun she was having and didn't see the trouble that Elsa was going through trying to keep up with her. Suddenly at the apex of Anna's highest jump Elsa tripped on the hem of her nightgown and wasn't able to make a snowdrift in time. In desperation she flung a random blast of energy that instead of catching the errant girl struck her in the head. Luckily the blast threw her into one of the random piles of snow that were scattered around the floor so she wasn't hurt by the fall but the silence that followed was deafening.
Frantically Elsa ran to her sister's side, "Anna, Anna, are you okay," when no response came the young girl yelled at the top of her lungs, "Mommy, Daddy, somebody help!" After a few minutes of her anguished cry for help reverberating through the halls lights began to shine in the halls and suddenly the King and Queen of the castle burst through the doors, and seeing the winter scene before them they feared one of their secret nightmares had come true. Even though they loved both of their daughters when one of them has a power that they knew nothing about they unwillingly feared what she could do. Even if it was a complete accident it wouldn't change the damage that their daughter could cause when she had trouble controlling her powers, and seeing their younger daughter in the arms of their crying eldest the King and Queen rushed forward. The Queen grabbed the limp form of Anna and began to look her over trying to see what was wrong with her baby girl, and the King grabbed Elsa and said in a worried tone,
"Elsa, what did you do?" Filled with a child's fear that her parents would hate her she tried to explain as fast as possible,
"We were playing and Anna was jumping around and I tried to catch her but I tripped, and then... and then…" Unable to keep going tears began to pour from the little girls eyes, as she was overcome with worry over what would happen to her sister and herself. Seeing the distress in his daughter's eyes the King wrapped Elsa in his arms and held her close making comforting noises while his mind frantically tried to think of a way to help his girls.
"What if I hurt her papa," Elsa's voice was filled with sadness and fear as the words came out, "does that make me a monster."
The King's embrace tightened around her as he said "No darling, nothing could make you a monster." Suddenly an idea flashed through the King's head as her words brought a memory to the surface,
"The trolls!" he said suddenly.
"What are you talking about Agdar?" The Queen suddenly said from where she was holding Anna close to her chest.
Instead of answering the king just said "Idun, there is no time, I will have to explain on the way. Just go down to the stables and tell them to get a pair of horses ready at once, I need to go to the library to find something." When he turned around his wife hadn't moved. Reaching out he grabbed her hand and said "Sweetheart please go quickly and take Elsa with you, Trust me. I may have thought of someone who can help our girls."
The Queen's eyes widened at the fact that he included Elsa in the statement, then she steeled herself and stood hefting the frame of her youngest daughter in her arms. Turning to Elsa she said in a motherly tone,
"Elsa run quickly to your room and find cloaks for you and your sister than go to the stable as fast as you can, I will be there waiting for you and as soon as your father arrives we will be off." Trusting in her parents Elsa shot off like an arrow from a bow, moving as fast as her legs could carry her.
After she was gone the Queen turned her gaze to her husband and said in a quiet tone, "Now, the library and Stable are in the same direction so you can explain to me what you are thinking as we go."
The King recognized that his wife would not negotiate on this matter and said "Very well, let's talk as we go, I don't know what's happened to Anna, and time is of the essence."
As the horses that were carrying the royal family sped through the forest the words of her husband were bouncing around in the Queen's head. Finally she could hold it in no more and called out to her husband,
"Agdar, are you sure that they can help us, and if they can why haven't we gone to them before."
Without looking over at the Queen he replied, "I never thought of it because the kingdom has had no interaction with them since its founding, except for the meeting that is held every fifty years to reaffirm the treaties we have with them." Then after sighing he continued, "Also, I never considered them as an option because we have no guarantee that they will even agree to help us. The only reason I thought of them now is because this is an emergency, and we don't really have any other choice."
For the rest of the journey they were silent each mulling over the thought of what they would do if they weren't able to find any assistance at their current destination. Finally the forest around them began to disappear, replaced by the rocky landscape that marked the domain of the rock trolls. Leaving the horses a fair distance away the small family walked into a small canyon calling out for assistance. After a few moments the King lowered his hands from around his mouth and looked at his wife and daughters.
Then in one final attempt he raised his voice "Please, help my daughter. She has been struck by some form of magic which I know nothing about. We need your help so please." When the echoes of his voice died down and still nothing had happened his shoulder slumped tiredly, and seeing the defeated look of her husband the Queen nearly broke down and gave up hope for poor Anna. However right then an odd rattling could be heard throughout the canyon as the rocks that were scattered here and there began to rock back and forth. At first fearing some form of earthquake the King rushed to his family and wrapped them in a protective embrace.
Suddenly the rocks around them began to stand up revealing their true form. The family gasped at the sight of the little trolls with their pointy ears and big noses. Suddenly upon closer inspection the trolls realized who exactly had entered into their domain, murmurs began to break out about the King coming to them. Finally the crowd of trolls began to part and a troll with the air of some kind of elder or leader in the tribe came forward.
"Your majesty," The Troll gasped, "what brings you to our land?" Taking Anna from the arms of her mother the King bent down to show her to the troll.
"Please," he began, "Our daughter has been struck with her sisters magic and we don't know what is wrong with her. Can you help us?"
After inspecting the young redhead he turned to Elsa. "Was she born with this ability or cursed in some way?" the troll asked.
"Born with it." Replied the King.
Turning back to Anna the troll then went on to say, "Well, you are lucky that it was her head that was struck. A Frozen heart is nearly impossible to thaw, but the head can be persuaded." The troll then worked his magic, removing the memories of Elsa's abilities and putting everything back in its place. Then after giving his warning about the powers Elsa had been born with he looked to the King.
While listening to the troll's words the King was going through an inner dialogue about how much help he should ask for form the troll people. While they did have a peaceful relationship with the trolls he knew they weren't considered citizens of his kingdom. As such he had no authority to demand their aid, but he had to do something. This accident may have been easily remedied but how long until something worse happened because Elsa didn't have a strong hold on her abilities. He could isolate her and try to help her as best he could, but no matter how much he wanted to try to protect her from everything he knew that he had no way of knowing how to help her. So he collected his courage and looked directly at the troll.
"Honorable troll" He began, "I know, I have no right to ask anything more of you than what you have done but please if you would I have one more favor to ask of you."
The troll then turned to you the king with curiosity in his eyes. "Speak king and if it is in my power to do I will do what I can to aid you."
With relief the king continued, "You have shown that you have knowledge of how this magic may work, and we wish to know if you can somehow help our daughter control this power that she has." Turning to look at his family he continued saying, "We have been lucky that nothing has happened up till now, but as she grows so does her power, and what if next time the accident is worse." Turning back to the small elderly troll before him the king finished by pleading, "Please, help my daughter so that she can become the princess that she needs to be."
After hearing the king's heartfelt words the troll was troubled. In all honesty though they may be good people and good parents the king and queen knew nothing of the power of their daughter, and he suspected they would react in the predictable way of trying to seal her abilities away by suppressing them until the pressure they put on her both physically and emotionally cause her to explode. He knew that he could help them, but he doubted that the tribe would agree to what they would need to do to allow the aid to be given. With a sigh the troll looked into the king's eyes and said,
"Your majesty, I honestly don't know if I can accomplish what you want. I will need to speak with my brethren to see if it is possible, return here in one week's time and I will have an answer for you." Then with a bow of respect to the tall man the troll elder turned and began to leave, the rest of the trolls in the area following him deeper into the canyon.
Later that evening, after the king's family had returned to their castle, the leaders of the troll clan meet together underneath the mountain. Pounding his staff on the ground to bring order to the meeting Pabbie, the troll king, raised his voice to begin.
"I have called everyone together to discuss the request that the human king put before us today." Before he could continue he was interrupted by a troll that was about a head taller than the others around the table,
"Pabbie, you can't seriously be considering it no human in this land has ever seen the extent of our kingdom. You may have allowed Bulda to keep that boy and his reindeer that she found earlier today but even you said that she had to keep him above ground, and in order to teach that girl to control her powers, we would need to bring her down here, to our true realm, to receive intensive training."
After listening to the tall trolls outburst Pabbie calmly replied, "Brutoc, I am not proposing we teach her to fully use her abilities. Merely that we help her to gain control of it so that she wouldn't endanger those around her." When those words had been spoken another troll suddenly spoke up,
"Now, now Pabbie, we all know that you would never let it stay at just that. You would never let a rough gem like her leave without having full control of her abilities, her powers are too great to do otherwise." After that the conversation of the council of trolls began to bounce back and forth over what they could and could not afford to teach the young girl.
Finally after sitting silently and contemplating the situation Pabbie tapped his staff to the table to bring their attention back to him. "I know that you are all reluctant to help her due to the need we would have of bringing her so deeply into our tribe, but what if we could help her without actually needing to train her ourselves." After stating this looks of curiosity began to be focused on the eldest troll.
"What are you saying Pabbie?" Brutoc finally asked, "How could we help while at the same time not help her ourselves?"
"Simple we send her to be with people like her who can teach her the origin of her powers and how to use them wisely, then as she grows, we can watch over her and see if she is trustworthy enough to bring her into the tribe." Pabbie answered.
After hearing Pabbie's answer Brutoc immediately responded with another question, "And how, pray tell, do you plan on getting in contact with anyone from that world, we haven't had any contact with the nations since the last human we allied our tribe to betrayed us. We don't even know what is happening over there."
Before he could continue Pabbie interrupted him saying, "And our tribe has suffered for it, we were once a great tribe seen as equals to the power of the toads, slugs, and snakes, now we are not even known. We hide here among the rocks slowly growing weaker. This girl with her power could be the key to becoming as we once were." With a sigh he continued, "As for how we are going to pull this off, although many of the old treatise have faded there is yet one ally that we can call upon to help us contact the humans of that world."
Out of curiosity one of the other trolls on the council spoke, "Who might that be? The snakes would kill anyone from our tribe on sight, the slugs were neutral toward us in the past, we haven't heard from the toads in years, and none of the other clans like the ravens or dogs were strong enough back then for us to desire any sort of pact with them beyond one of non-aggression."
Turning his gaze toward the troll who spoke Pabbie answered saying, "We may not have heard from them in years but the treaty with the toads still stands and I have a way to speak with them."
At this declaration there was an atmosphere of shock throughout the chamber. Finally Brutoc again spoke "After so many years of indifference from them why would they help us, we may still remember the promises that we made to them but there is no telling if they still remember us." In exasperation Pabbie said back, "We have a week, let me try to contact them and if this works than we have the solution to our problems and if not we will continue our talks about finding a solution." With that final declaration the meeting was adjourned and Pabbie left to seek the aid of there one time allies.
Fukasaku sat meditating under a tree, he enjoyed his peaceful time when he could practice the sage art of centering oneself, especially when he had to constantly put up with his wife's bickering, Gamabunta's rowdiness, and the senile old toad sage. These few times when he could get away and sit in nature were some of his favorites but they were always interrupted after a while, which was why he wasn't surprised when Shima ran up to him croaking his name.
"Fuka, Fuka!" she called at the top of her voice, sighing Fukasaku stood from the spot where he had been sitting and called to his wife,
"What is it Shima? As much as I love to hear your voice, your croaking so load it could wake the dead." When she finally spotted him Shima frantically hopped over to him, when she was within speaking distance she gasped out,
"Fuka we are getting a call through the portal." Fuka raised his eyebrow at that as he responded,
"And what? Has Jiraiya gotten himself in a life or death situation again and needs our help? Why all the hurry?" Fuka was confused because almost nothing excited his wife to the point that she was now.
"No." she replied, "It's the Trolls." As soon as Fuka registered what she had said his jaw dropped,
'They haven't tried contacting us in years,' he thought to himself, 'why now of all times, do they reach out to us again?' After his mind raced through several different possible reasons, he realized that he would never know the answer by just standing there and looked to his wife who looked back at him expectantly.
"If I had known you would just freeze up at the news," she said, "I would have just talked to them myself." Fuka deadpanned, then started to rush toward the portal and as he passed Shima he said,
"Alright, enough let's see what's going on."
A few minutes later Fukasaku and Shima ran into the room that contained the Distant Body Water portal together and when Fuka looked in he was again shocked to see the face of Pabbie the leader of the Trolls.
'Huh,' he thought 'I was half expecting this to either be a joke or some kind of mistake.' Looking in he looked again at Pabbie and smiled,
"Old friend," he said, "where have you been. It has been at least two hundred years since we last talked." Pabbie looked back with a smile, "Two hundred and thirty actually, it is good to see you again."
Suddenly Shima pushed her way into the image, "Two Hundred and thirty years and you never thought to contact us! Pabbie what possessed you to cut off contact so completely."
With a sigh he said "When we suffered the great tragedy brought about by our last summoner we were weakened to the point that we couldn't survive in the shinobi world anymore. That's why we cut ties with everyone." After hearing the story from Pabbie, Fukasaku was saddened, he knew how loyal to their summoners the Trolls were and how they would were devastated by the betrayal they had suffered.
Looking his old friend in the eyes Fuka then asked, "If that is the case, then why contact us now, what can we do to help you?"
Pabbie paused then, "how can I word this," he muttered, then more loudly he said, "We have a new summoner." Then after thinking about it he restated, "Well, more like a candidate for the position. There is a young girl here with a most interesting, and powerful, ability. The only problem is that our tribe is reluctant to train her ourselves. However we know that you have some sort of connection to the ninja villages that we have heard about. Could there be a way for you to get her to be trained in one of them."
Fuka was taken aback by the request that Pabbie had given. Turning to Shima he asked, "What do you think?" Shima for her part was already evaluating what could be done,
"Well," she responded, "the only village that I would even remotely trust is Jiraiya's, but we would have to talk to him about it, you know how detached we are from the other ninja's and their politics."
Turning back to Pabbie, Fuka finally said to him, "We might be able to help you but we will have to talk to our summoner first." Then his curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "Oh, and out of curiosity, what is this strange ability that this girl has?"
Pabbie then had a thoughtful look on his face as he responded, "I don't fully understand it, it seems like she can somehow control or even create ice and snow out of nothing. It could be that she is merely able to control the water that surrounds her in the air, but for some reason it seems like it is more to me. It truly is a puzzle."
Fuka frowned thoughtfully at the answer, 'Hmm, what kind of power could she have, oh well it is not really our responsibility to understand it, that will fall to Pabbie and his people.' Finally after he finished his inner monologue, Fuka said to Pabbie, "We will contact our summoner and see what we can do, as soon as we are done we will call on you." Turning away from the portal Fuka said to Shima, "Well, let's start on the summoning array to pull Jiraiya here so we can talk to him about this."
As Pabbie turned away from the waterfall that worked as the portal of the Trolls he heaved a sigh, 'Thank goodness they answered. It has been so long since we have used this I feared the connection had been lost.' As he thought this he began walking back toward the council chamber, 'Now,' he thought, 'I just have to wait for their answer and hope that it is a good one. I just know that if this doesn't pan out the council will be distraught.'
INSERT LINE BREAK
"Oh yeah, this is one of the best research sites in the entire elemental nations." Jiraiya said quietly to himself as he spied over the wall of the hot spring. "With this kind of material I'll be able to get my next manuscript in by the end of the month."
After having this monologue with himself he put all other thoughts out of his mind and focused once more on the object of his current affection and giggled perversely to himself. Everything was going well for him, his books were best sellers, his spy network was running like a well-oiled machine, and he was free to go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted. Which was why it was such a shock when his stomach suddenly started doing somersaults and his vision was covered in smoke.
Coughing and waving his hands he cleared the smoke and was surprised to see, instead of the hot spring where he had been the odd landscape of Mount Myoboku. After registering his sudden change of location he said the first thing that came to mind,
"HUH?" unfortunately because of the seated posture he had been in in the tree he didn't have the support he needed to stand upright, and it was at that moment that gravity decided to enforce its law, leaving him in a heap on the floor in front of a familiar elderly toad couple. Deciding that laying sprawled on the ground was a rather undignified position for a ninja of his standing as fast as was possible for him Jiraiya launched up and landed in his trademark stance with his hands outstretched and balancing on one foot.
"What is the problem Fuka, are we under attack, or did you just miss my greatness so much that you couldn't resist calling me here?"
His statement hung in the air for a few second before he was suddenly struck down by the divine justice that is Shima's rolling pin. Once again sprawled on the ground he was then forced to listen to a screech of chastisement from the matronly toad,
"What have we told about doing that stupid pose in our house? And why would you think we would bring you here for anything as foolish as that we missed your presence, you are still one hundred years too early to try impressing us."
It was at that point that Fuka decided to intercede and try to save the poor sage. "Now dear, I am sure he was just disoriented by the summoning, why don't you lighten up a little on the boy?"
'Thanks for the save Fuka.' Thought Jiraiya as tears streamed down his face from the shame of his current situation. Suddenly Jiraiya stood up and looked seriously at the two toads.
"All joking aside," he said, "Why have you summoned me, do you need my help with something, or do you have some kind of information that I need to know?" Jiraiya knew that the toads wouldn't reverse summon him here unless it was drastically important.
Looking up into his eyes Fuka asked him, "Boy, what do you know about summon clans and how they interact?" A look of confusion suddenly came over Jiraiya's face as he pondered the question, finally he answered. "To be honest not much. I know that Gamabunta is at least acquainted with the boss summons of the Snakes, and the Slugs. But I had always figured he met them through me and my teammates."
Nodding his head at the answer Fuka began his lecture, "Very good, but you are wrong. The Toads, Snakes and Slugs have been dealing with each other for centuries, long before we ever even had summoners or any dealings with humans, and more than them there are many other animal nations, some that humans have yet to discover, and some that humans have all but forgotten." After saying all this he looked to Jiraiya to see his reaction to the information. Jiraiya for his part was surprised by this revelation but after considering it for a while he decided that it made sense that a sentient race of animals would have their own dealings and politics like humans did, so in order to keep the information coming Jiraiya posed a question,
"Ok, so how does this new information tie into me being summoned today?" Fuka smiled when he heard Jiraiya's question, happy that he had been insightful enough to ask the right one.
"Well," Fuka continued, "earlier today we were contacted by another one of these nations, one who have been our allies for longer than I care to remember, but had centuries ago cut ties with the shinobi nations and have since faded into obscurity. They have asked for our aid and in order to give them what they need we needed to contact you."
With this added information Jiraiya was even more curious about this, 'What could the toads need with me?' he thought, 'they are completely autonomous, the only thing I do for them is be their link to Konoha.' And as soon as that thought went through his head he realized that that was exactly the reason they needed him, after reaching this conclusion he tested it by saying to Fuka,
"And how can I help you, the only thing I am for you is a link to the ninja villages, so unless it has something to do with that I can't do much." As soon as the words left his mouth Jiraiya and Fuka knew that they were on the same page.
Fuka's smile widened, "Exactly Jiraiya, there might be hope for you yet. Yes this nation has finally found someone that they see as worthy to be their summoner. The only problem is that it is a young girl who needs training and they don't feel that they could train her due to some outside circumstances. And before you ask no they didn't give me all of the information, we are allies not one nation, and as such we are all entitled to our little secrets. Now on to the central question, do you think that this girl could be accepted in Konoha and receive training to become a summoner that this clan could trust."
As he listened to what Fuka had been saying, Jiraiya began to rub his chin in thought as he considered the possibilities. "It could work, but before I would be willing to bring anyone into Konoha's gates I would have to meet them and discern if they pose some sort of threat to the village."
Fuka nodded again when he heard Jiraiya's response. "I understand, and we also would hate any harm to come to that village by our folly. I will tell this to our allies and we will see if we can arrange a meeting. You can wait here on the mountain until we receive the response."
As he turned to leave however Jiraiya raised his hand to ask one more question, "Wait, you never said who your allies were that had contacted you."
"Oh," responded Fuka, "I am sorry for my slip up. They are the Trolls." And with that response Fuka disappeared in a body flicker, leaving Jiraiya with a confused look on his face thinking,
'What's a troll?'
Over the past week the King of Arrendelle had been distraught with worry about what the future might hold for his family. The morning after their trip to the Trolls for help Anna had stayed asleep, at first they were worried that perhaps the Trolls had been too late to help, but later she began to stir and shortly after that she awoke from her short coma. After a brief period of bed rest, a mere day and a half, she had been up and around with the same energy and fervor that she possessed before the accident.
The real stress in his life had been Elsa. She seemed afraid to touch anyone in the family anymore. She stayed by herself in her room sealed off from human contact. When The King and Queen went to speak to her, when Anna had come crying into their room about how mean Elsa was being, she had refused to touch or even come close to them going so far as to put a pair of stockings on her hands so that there was no chance her skin would come in contact with someone else's. She no longer played with her sister, she wouldn't hug them goodnight, just about the only time they saw her was at meal times, where they had to order her to come and she would eat in silence and excuse herself as quickly as she possibly could. Finally the King had felt that her behavior had gone on long enough, and he called her into his office to speak to her alone.
They had sat there awkwardly side by side until the King finally asked, "Elsa, what is the matter? Why have you decided to cut yourself off from the rest of us?" Getting up he kneeled in front of her chair so that he could look her straight in the eye, "Your mother, sister, and I are worried about you, we love you and want to help."
After a while Elsa's eyes started to shine with tears as she began to break down and cry out "I'm a monster… I…I almost killed Anna, and I don't want to hurt anyone else!" When she finished her exclamation of the guilt she felt she began to sob in earnest. The King rushed forward and took her in a strong embrace,
"Ooh Elsa," he said in the most-gentle voice he could, "You are not a monster. What happened with Anna was a complete accident. You would never hurt her or anyone on purpose right?" Elsa shook her head furiously into her father's shoulder as she continued to cry.
"That's right," the King continued, "we know that you are still learning to control your abilities, they don't make you a monster; they make you special. When you learn to control them I am sure there are endless possible ways that you can use them to help others. That is why we asked the Trolls for help when we went to visit them. They know how to teach you to control your abilities, and with their help you will never have to fear hurting someone else ever again ok." Pulling his head back the King looked into his daughter's eyes, they looked less sad but there was still a small light of uncertainty in them.
"But, what if the Trolls can't help, or what if they won't?" She asked.
Looking at her with determined look he responded, "Elsa, if the trolls can't help you than I will not rest until I have found someone who can. Nothing will stop me from making sure you never have to fear what you can do again, understood."
And with that fatherly declaration the last strings of doubt on Elsa's heart broke and she hugged her father even tighter saying, "Thank you Daddy."
With his daughters faith in him restored he pushed her back a little so that she stood at arm's length and said to her "Alright, now that we have that taken care of. Let's talk about the stockings you have on your hands." He said with a serious face, which was ruined by the slight smile he wore. Elsa looked at her covered hands before she clutched them to her chest.
"Daddy, please don't make me stop wearing them. I feel like I have more control with them on." As she said it she looked up at him with wide pleading eyes. Seeing his daughter's pitiful look he went around to behind his desk and opened a drawer pulling out a small pair of white gloves.
"Fine," he said, "I won't make you stop covering your hands, but stockings are not a hand covering fit for a princess. So how about you use these instead." Once more he knelt down to his daughter's level and gently removed the stockings before replacing them with the elegant gloves. The small girl gasped as she looked at the gloves before hugging her father again in gratitude. With that last problem seemingly fixed he took her to bed and left her whispering,
"Now I know of a little girl who would love to spend some time with you tomorrow." Motioning over toward Anna sleeping on the other side of the room. He then kissed her forehead and left for his own bed.
Two days had passed since their talk and Elsa was beginning to act more like her old self again. She was still a little careful around Anna, and she seemed fearful of accidently letting her powers out, but it was a large improvement from the recluse that she had been for the past couple of days. The problem he faced now was that it was a mere two days until the proposed meeting with the trolls had been set, and some of the fears that Elsa had conveyed were taking up root in his own heart. What if the Trolls couldn't, or wouldn't help Elsa? He had promised his little girl that he would do everything in his power to help her, but what if it was completely out of his power to do so.
For the last day and a half these thoughts had plagued his mind, but at that moment all he could do was shake them from his mind and worry about them after he found the outcome to the meeting he was going to now. Anna stayed behind with her mother, because she had forgotten everything about Elsa's abilities, so it was just the King and Elsa who climbed together onto a horse to hear the answer to their request for help. As they rode out of the city the last thought the King had was,
'Please let them be able to help. They may be my only hope.'
Elsa and the King walked quietly into the small canyon where they had met the Trolls during their last visit. The horse they had rode in on was tied a little ways off munching on grass as the father and daughter went to hear what the Trolls had to say about Elsa's future. When they reached the place where they had last spoken with the Troll King the week prior the King called out,
"Honorable troll, we have returned after a week just as you said. Please, give us your answer. Will you help my daughter to learn to control her powers or not?" They waited patiently for a few minutes before once again a rumbling was heard as rocks around the area began to shake and roll around until one particular rock rolled up to the pair of royals and stood to reveal itself as the troll they had come to speak with. Stretching up he reached his full diminutive height, before saying to the King in a solemn voice,
"We cannot do what you ask noble King w…" The King immediately interrupted the troll his eyes wide with shock before narrowing slightly in desperate anger,
"Why not!" he demanded, "You obviously have a grasp of magic and its inner workings, what is keeping you from aiding my daughter." After hearing the words of the troll and her father's sudden thunderous reply, Elsa cowered behind the Kings leg. Seeing the response of the King and his daughter, the troll raised his hand in a placating manner before continuing,
"Peace, King Agdar. I said that we couldn't help you daughter, but we can get you the assistance that you ask for."
When he said this the King immediately calmed down and his eyes showed hope, "Marvelous," he said, "but I am confused, how can you offer any assistance when you say that you can't help her."
"That is where I come in." A voice suddenly said from behind the King. Turning around he beheld a very odd sight unlike anything he had seen before. Standing behind him was a tall man in his mid to late 40's wearing a strange green outfit of a style he was not familiar with, the pants were long but they were tucked into some kind of mesh shin guards that stopped above his ankles showing off the wooden sandals he was wearing the had him standing on two thin platforms. On his upper body he wore some kind of inner coat over a shirt that seemed to be made of a material similar to the shin protectors. The sleeves of the coat were also tucked into bracers made of the same mesh that had some kind of protector for the back of his hand. Over everything the man wore a long red overcoat that had no sleeves and two yellow dots over his chest. The man's long spikey white hair was held back out of his face by a horned headband with some kind of black marking in the middle of his forehead. At the sight of this new stranger the King took a step back in surprise and pushed Elsa behind himself so that he was between her and the strange man.
"Hello," greeted the stranger, "My name is the great Jiraiya of Konohagakure." He ended his introduction with a large smile and a thumbs up. The King wasn't sure how to respond, and he was even more confused when a small, green, blur seemed to leap up and strike Jiraiya over the head making him duck and grab his head with a hiss of pain. The Blur it turned out was a toad the stood a few inches shorter and was many inches thinner than the troll that they had been talking to. The weird thing about it thought, wasn't its size, but the way that it had eyebrows, hair, and a goatee, toads do not normally have hair on them. Nor do they talk, but this one did as it waved its cane threateningly at the tall man,
"Jiraiya, you fool, we are trying to get the king here to trust us not scare the living daylights out of him and his daughter." Sighing the toad turned to the King, "Forgive him, he always has had a problem with taking things seriously. My name is Fukasaku, and before you say it yes I am a talking toad, and I am an ally to the Troll Tribe that you are familiar with."
When he finished his introduction the King had to take a moment to collect his thoughts before the overload of information caused him to faint. Looking down at Elsa, he saw that her eyes were the size of dinner plates and glued to the sight of the talking toad. Having marshaled his emotions enough, the King looked back to the toad who had moved to stand by the troll elder and they seemed to be greeting each other as they waited for him to regain his bearings.
"And how sir frog can you and your… companion, aid my family as he seems to claim?" The King asked trying to be polite as he was surrounded by all of these oddities, while on the inside he was thinking 'If I pick up Elsa and run we should be able to get away and I can forget any of this ever happened.'
Turning back to the King the Toad said, "First thing, please refrain from confusing me with a frog, I am a Toad and we are very sensitive about this distinction. Now to answer your question. We hail from a far-away land where abilities such as your daughters are commonplace we can take her there where she will be trained on how to control her abilities."
A look of doubt came over the Kings face at hearing about an entire land with people that had abilities like his daughter. Upon seeing the doubt Jiraiya stepped forward saying,
"Perhaps a demonstration would help to ease your mind." Spreading his arms out he said "you might want to stand back for this."
Giving those present some time to retreat a few steps he brought his hands together making four separate shapes with his fingers after the last he slapped his hand on the ground while saying, "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall." Suddenly there was a thunderous rumbling and behind Jiraiya a large wall of rock began to rise from the ground as it rose upon the wall the shape of a toad could be seen sitting with its hands together in a meditative posture. When the wall stopped forming Jiraiya straightened himself and shifted his shoulders to settle his coat back to its proper place before looking back at the King, a slight smirk formed on his face when he took in the shocked expression on the two royals' faces. Making a grand gesture toward the wall he had just constructed he said,
"As you can see, abilities to control the elements are not such an oddity where I come from. Your daughter will fit right in and I am sure we can solve any kind of control problem she may have." When he had witnessed the monumental feat showed to him hope began to stir in the King's chest.
'If this man can do that,' he thought 'then training Elsa should be child's play for him.' Focusing back on the troll, the toad, and the man before him he enthusiastically said,
"This is perfect, you can act as Elsa's tutor and help her to learn to control her abilities." When he heard the King's response however Jiraiya's face sunk in a frown,
"Sorry your majesty," he said, "I can't do that." The King was shocked, and he quickly tried to explain more about the position,
"No, you needn't worry about lodging or food, you will live in the castle with us and be free to come and go whenever you please." But his remarks were cut off by the raising of Jiraiya's hand,
"It's not a matter of my upkeep, it is a matter of my responsibilities. I am not some wandering magician looking for his next meal, I am very loyal to my homeland and have certain obligations that must be met, so I can't afford to spend the years it would take to train her completely. Instead I can offer her a place in an academy for children like her who have similar abilities where she will learn and develop her control." At the mention of years being spent away from home the King visibly stiffened. He looked at the man incredulously saying,
"You are telling me that I have to send my daughter, a princess of my kingdom, and my heir, out to someplace I have never heard of, with a man I have just met. You must think me mad to take such a risk."
"King Agdar," the troll said, having decided to re-enter the conversation at this point, "You will not lose complete contact with you daughter. We have a way to travel quickly between this land and the other, meaning you will be able to hear from her frequently. Also I must add that the Toads have been our allies and friends for centuries. We have complete trust in them when they say no harm will come to your daughter, she will only receive the help that she needs." The King looked intently at the three who were trying to convince him to take this option, searching for any inkling that they were trying to deceive him, finally after seeing nothing dishonest about what they had said he looked down at his daughter.
Elsa for her part had been avidly watching the entire conversation unfold, knowing that what was being said here would direct the course of her future. She had originally thought that the man with white hair was kind of scary, but he almost seemed too playful to stay scary for long. However when she saw him make the earth wall seemingly out of nothing, and heard about an academy where she could learn to do things like that, with other kids like her, she was shocked to complete silence. Thoughts were going through her mind at a million miles per hour saying things like 'I could learn to do things like that.' Or 'I wonder if I could make friends with other people like me.' When the talking had suddenly stopped and she looked to her father, she saw that he was looking at her with a puzzled face, like he didn't know what to do about this. When she saw it she simply smiled at him, because she would be happy for the opportunity that they were describing.
After a while of studying his daughter, with an intensity as if he were trying to memorize everything about her, he stated
"Can I have a while to think about it and to also speak with my wife concerning our decision?" Rubbing his chin thoughtfully Jiraiya said,
"Well that depends, how old is you daughter?" Wanting to at least have said one thing in all the talking that was happening that night, Elsa jumped at the chance to answer this simple question,
"I am seven, sir" she said meekly, before retreating again behind her father's leg.
"Well that's perfect then." Responded Jiraiya, "the academy of which I speak doesn't let children in until the age of eight. So you have plenty of time to talk it over, and if you decide to send her than you will also have some time to teach her to read our language." A little offended at the remark the King retorted,
"She has learned to read and right from tutors since the age of 5." Realizing his mistake Jiraiya help out his hands in a placating gesture,
"Sorry, sorry," he said, "I should have said my language. We are able to speak to each other thanks to the trolls and their techniques, but we still have different languages. For example can you read this?" he said, as he pointed to his forehead. With confusion the King looked closer at the mark on Jiraiya's forehead,
"No," he answered truthfully, "I had assumed it was a mark denoting rank or something along those lines." With a chuckle Jiraiya shook his head and said,
"Nope, this is the word for oil in my language, so if you want her to be able to do well at the academy she is going to have to learn to read and write in this language." At that the Troll Elder spoke up,
"However, you won't have to worry about that. That is something we can help her with if you make the decision to send her to the academy." With a sigh of exhaustion the King said
"Very well, I will talk to my wife and return with our answer to this in two days. And even though we may not accept the aid you have offered us, I do want to thank you for offering it."
"It was an honor, you majesty." The three replied. And with that the talks had ended for the evening and the King and Elsa went home.
"THEY WANT WHAT!" Screamed the Queen, as she paced back and forth in their private quarters. "You are telling me that they want me to send Elsa off to some far off land that we have never heard of, so that she can learn to use her powers." Whirling about so that she faced the King directly she said to him, "I would rather take the chance of teaching her myself than be separated from her in that manner." Looking at his wife the king rebutted,
"Yes but we can't teach her ourselves Idun. These people have the same powers as her, and we wouldn't have to worry at all about someone getting hurt while she is learning." In an attempt to calm his wife down he grabbed her hands in his own.
"And," he continued, "We wouldn't be completely losing contact with her, we would be able to write letters and hear how she is progressing. Think of it like a boarding school." Sighing the queen looked into the Kings eyes and said,
"But Agdar, she is so young. To send her away for four years would be too much. By the time she got back she would already be a young woman. And how are we going to explain it to Anna, she has forgotten all about Elsa's power so she wouldn't understand why her sister is going away." Pulling his wife into an embrace the King said,
"I am sure we will think of something. Tomorrow we will discuss it together as a family, and we will see what Elsa wants to do."
Elsa for her part was almost too excited to sleep. 'There are people like me.' She thought, as she laid down after getting ready for bed. 'I won't be alone and I want have to be afraid of hurting anyone accidentally, ever again. I sure hope Mom and Dad let me go.' The next morning Elsa was woken up by the little red-headed ball of energy that was her sister Anna.
"Hey," Anna said excitedly, "Where did Daddy and you go last night. I wanted to go too but Mom wouldn't let me." The last part was said with a cute pout on her face. Elsa however didn't notice the pout because she was too busy panicking. She didn't want to lie to her sister, but Anna didn't know about her powers, or the trolls. Luckily Elsa was saved when the Butler, Kai, entered their room. Respectfully bowing before the two young princesses he said,
"Girls, you parents would like you to join them for breakfast now. They said that there was an urgent matter to discuss as a family." Bouncing up from her sister's bed, Anna hurriedly began to get dressed.
"Oh, oh, oh," she said as she threw of her night gown and began to scramble into a dress, "I wonder what they want to talk to us about, I wonder if we are going to go on a trip together."
Moving at a more sedate pace Elsa began to prepare herself as well, her ideas however stayed in her mind instead of spilling out, 'It is probably about what daddy spoke to the Trolls about. I wonder if they will let me go to the academy.' When the two girls had finished getting ready, Kai led them to the small dining room that was reserved for family meals between the royals.
After they finished eating together the small family gathered in the parent's personal sitting room to talk. The King spoke first saying, "Now girls we wanted to talk to you two about something very important." Before he continued Anna, ever the unstoppable ball of energy, blurted out
"Is this about what you went out with Elsa to do last night?" The King looked at his youngest and chuckled lightly,
"Yes Anna, it has something to do with that. Your sister is special, and as such she has been invited to go to a special school to learn how to be…" he paused here as if trying to think of how to phrase it to his daughter.
"She is going to learn how to better fulfill her future responsibilities." The Queen suddenly said, filling in for her husband's lack of imagination.
Anna just sat there looking at them with a confused look on her face. "So what does that mean?" The little girl asked innocently.
"It means that if we decide to send her there, she will have to go away for a few years." The king responded. Shock suddenly filled the little girls face and her eyes began to shine with tears, she then grabbed her sister tightly and said forcefully,
"NO! You can't send her away, she needs to stay with me." Elsa for her part was taken aback by her sister's response to the news, and she didn't know how to respond. Before she could however their mother suddenly said,
"Oh, we know honey." As she said this she stood and moved to the two girls, "that is why we are talking together now. We would never send your sister away without talking to you two about it." And with that the Queen looked to her husband as if to say 'I guess we aren't sending her.'
When Elsa saw that look however in a sudden moment of insight she knew that her parents were going to listen to Anna and not send her with the white haired man they met the night before. Suddenly, unbidden, the fears that had grown from the accident with her sister came back full force.
'What if I never learn to control my power? What if I hurt one of my family?' With all of the strength she could muster she tore herself from the grasp of her sister, and launched from her seat to stand opposite her entire family. Then with her whole being she stated
"I want to go!" Her family's eye widened at her declaration. Stepping forward her father said,
"Elsa, please think about this, you would be away for so long." Giving her father a determined look Elsa retorted,
"But I want to go. If I don't I won't be able to be a good princess like you said." Then turning to her mother she said in her most pleading voice,
"Please mother, I have to go. I will be with other people like me." Suddenly two little arms latched around her neck yet again and she heard Anna almost wail in her ear,
"NO, we just started playing together again you can't leave now." Elsa did feel bad for having to leave her sister, but deep down she still felt fear worming its way into her heart. Every time they were together she felt like she would lose control. She felt like she had to go if she were ever going to be able to truly be with her family again. She tried to gently move her sister's arms so she could talk to her as she said,
"Anna listen…" Before she was interrupted and her sister held on tighter
"No you can't go." With that she started to get frustrated because she couldn't breathe easily due to the tightness of her sister's arms and Anna wasn't letting her explain. Roughly now she jerked her sister's arms away and whirled to face her before she said sternly
"Listen Anna, I am going to go and you can't stop me." Anna just looked at Elsa shocked by how her sister had treated her before she got up and ran from the room. Elsa then turned toward her parents who both looked taken aback by the way their daughter was acting. The Queen then said to her
"Elsa that was not good. How could you treat your sister that way?" When she heard her Elsa looked at her parents with a frustrated expression,
"She wouldn't let me explain," she said loudly, "And you two were just going to listen to her whining instead of asking me what I wanted to do. This is about me, it's my problem and I want to go!" After listening to her the King and Queen felt slightly ashamed at what she had said, because she had hit the nail squarely on the head. After a few moments of thought the King looked up and said,
"Very well if this is what you truly want we can't stop you. We will go visit them tomorrow and tell them your decision." When he said this Elsa ran to him with a hug and thanked him.
"Now," said the King, "you need to go find you sister and apologize, understood."
"Yes, Father" replied Elsa, before she turned and began to leave. After the door had shut the Queen turned to the King and said,
"Are you sure about this?"
"No," the king replied, "but it seems to be the only choice that we have."
When she got to the room that she shared with her sister Elsa was a bit nervous, 'I really was mean to her' she thought as she slowly reached for the doorknob, 'I just hope I can explain it well.' Then without further delay she swung the door open and stepped inside. She scanned the room until her eyes finally rested on the small lump in the covers of her sister's bed. Slowly she crept up to it and said softly
"Anna, Anna are you awake." No response was given so she sighed and said, "Anna, I am sorry for yelling at you but I really want to go, I can't tell you why but just know that it is important to me." After that was said she turned back to her own bed and started to walk until she heard rustling behind her and her sister's voice say,
"Why can't you tell me?" turning quickly Elsa's eyes widened to see her sister awake and staring at her angrily.
"I, I c-cant," she stammered out, trying to think of a good excuse, "Because, Daddy told me not to tell anyone." She finally settled on blaming her parents hoping that it would redirect her sister's ire on them. Unfortunately for her it did no such thing, her sister just pointed at her and said
"That never stopped us from sharing secrets before."
"This is different," Elsa retorted, "It is dangerous, that's why I need to go."
"Liar," Anna yelled back, "You just don't want to stay with me because you think I whine too much." Elsa could only look at her with a questioning look not sure what she was talking about.
"I heard when you were talking to Mom and Dad. I heard that you think I was just whining to keep you here." Anna continued, "Well I don't even care if you go anymore, in fact I hope trolls come and take you away right now." Then with that final outburst Anna grabbed her covers and laid back down.
"Fine," Elsa shouted back before she jumped on her bed and buried her head into the pillow. Neither of them noticed the tears leaking from the others eyes.
The next two weeks seemed to flash by, they had talked to the trolls and told them their decision and had again spoken to the man, Jiraiya, to make plans on what they would do with their daughter. Elsa's eighth birthday was only nine weeks away so during that time a troll would stay at the castle and have lessons with Elsa to teach her how to read the new language she would be learning. Speaking it could be taken care of with the troll's skills but learning to read and write it would be a different matter entirely. Luckily the girl was an attentive student and took to the lessons like a fish to water. Unfortunately the relationship between the sisters did not improve. A few days after the first spat Anna requested to have her own room. When here parents asked her why she wouldn't want to spend the rest of the time before her sister left sharing she said it was so that she could get used to sleeping alone. Meal times with the family were quiet and awkward and no amount of peacemaking that the parents tried would reconcile the two.
Finally when Elsa's birthday came the King and Queen organized a grand party opening the gates to any and all that wished to attend. Elsa enjoyed it immensely but there was one thing missing. Anna had come for a short time but left as soon as she was allowed. That night the sisters met in the hall, Elsa looked to her sister with pleading eyes and said,
"Anna, I am sorry for everything. Please I don't want to leave with you mad at me." Anna just looked at her sadly and said,
"Then don't leave, stay here."
"I can't do that." Elsa responded, "I need to go to the academy it is important." Anna then began to fight back tears as her face filled with anger,
"Right" she said, "Because you have this big secret that you can't tell me. Fine then go to your academy and do what you need to do but don't expect me to be happy about it." And with that Anna stormed to her room and slammed the door. Two days later Elsa left.
Her stomach was sick with nervousness as Elsa rode with the King to the troll's canyon. This morning she had hugged her mother goodbye with tears in her eyes, Anna however had refused to leave her room. When they arrived the trolls were waiting for them along with Jiraiya and Fukasaku the Toad.
"Greetings, you majesty." Jiraiya said jovially as they dismounted, "Glad you could make it." The King merely looked at him before sighing out a reply,
"Thank you for the warm welcome, and sorry if I don't share your mood but I am going to be saying good bye to my daughter for a long time today so I don't feel very happy." Hearing her father's reply Elsa frowned until she hugged his legs and looked up at him saying,
"Don't worry daddy, I will be fine and when I come back we will all be together again." The King just looked down at her as he tried to hold back the tears.
"Just stay safe." He said as he knelt down to take her in his arms, "And make sure you come home as soon as you can."
"Don't worry," they both turned to face Jiraiya when they heard his voice, "I give you my word as the great Jiraiya that no harm will come to your daughter while she is in my village." He ended the statement with a thumbs up and a smile. Standing again the King said,
"I will hold you to that." And he extended his hand to the odd man that he would be entrusting his daughter to.
"Good" Pabbie, the troll king, suddenly interjected, "Now Jiraiya if you will take the girl to the circle," He then pointed to a circle of stones, "You can both be on your way, the sooner she goes the sooner she gets back, and you don't want them to get stuck on the road at nighttime it doesn't look like you daughter packed for a long road trip." As he finished he pointed to the pack on Elsa's back.
"Oh, I almost forgot." The King suddenly said "we need to bring the rest of her luggage from the wagon." Leading the others behind him he led them to a simple wagon which held two large trunks. "We didn't know for sure what she would need so we packed her some basic essentials and a purse of gold so that she can get started."
Jiraiya and the two summons could only sweat drop when they saw what the king considered basic essentials, and their eyes nearly jumped from their skulls at the size of the purse of gold. It would more accurately be described as a large bag of gold. Looking back to the man who would be escorting his daughter the king then asked.
"Do you have animals or a wagon for transport?" Jiraiya just smirked and said,
"Don't worry I can carry all of this." The King gave the man a disbelieving look and skeptically responded,
"I assure you sir that these trunks are full and quite heavy."
"Don't worry," rebutted Jiraiya, "Just step back and I will show you another interesting skill."
So the King and Elsa stepped back while Jiraiya unrolled a scroll on the ground and began to write on it with short quick brush strokes. A few minutes later he walked to the wagon and grabbed the two trunks. While he may not have the colossal strength of his teammate he did have the ability to enhance his strength. So it was with deceptive ease that he lifted both trunks and placed them on the scroll followed by the sack of gold. Turning back to the two royals he was pleased by the gob smacked expression they wore, after all they had seen a pair of their strongest servants struggle under the same weight. Then he said to them,
"Now prepare for the actual trick." Suddenly he bent down laid his hands on the writing that peeked out from under the load and said "Seal!" In a puff of smoke the mass of luggage disappeared before their very eyes. As the King stood there shocked at the seemingly impossible feat, and Elsa began to wonder if she could learn to do that. The two wizened summons merely rolled their eyes before Pabbie said
"Alright now that we have that figured out it is time for them to depart."
After the troll had finished Jiraiya motioned with his hands and said "This way my dear." Hesitantly Elsa followed him to the circle of stones and turned to face her father one last time. As the old toad and troll approached the circle she suddenly called out,
"Goodbye Papa, tell Mama and Anna that I love them and I will write you as soon as I can." And with that there was a large poof of smoke and she was gone. After the smoke cleared the two old beings turned to the King. In a last attempt at giving him some consolation the toad said,
"Don't worry your majesty she is in good hands. I have known Jiraiya since he was a boy, and though at times he seems immature, he is one of the most reliable men I have ever had the honor to call my friend."
Turning to the little creature the King said, "Thank you for your words. Now if you will excuse me I have a kingdom to see to and another daughter as well." With that he squared his shoulders, got on his wagon, and began the ride back to the city, all the while thinking 'Please be safe Elsa.'
Elsa coughed and waved her hand in front of her face to clear the smoke when she could see again her eyes widened at the size of the trees that surrounded her. She stood in the middle of a small path in the middle of the biggest forest she had ever laid eyes on. Finally her gaze settled on the form of Jiraiya watching her with amusement. When he saw that she had stopped gawking he said with a chuckle,
"Well how do you feel? The first time most people travel this way they get a little queasy." After he said that Elsa suddenly was overcome with a sense of vertigo that she hadn't noticed due to being overwhelmed by her surroundings. Grabbing her stomach she leaned over and groaned due to the feeling. Jiraiya just rubbed her back to soothe her and said, "Don't worry, it will pass soon enough." After looking around a bit Jiraiya smiled as he recognized where they were. "Alright, we are about thirty minutes from the village if we walk at your speed, or…" He finished cryptically.
"Or what?" Elsa replied, giving into her curiosity.
"Or," Jiraiya continued, "I could give you a taste of the kinds of things you will be learning and we could get there in five minutes." Elsa looked at him in awe wondering what he could do to cut that much time of their trip.
Finally after deliberating for a while she said, "Fine, what is the faster way?"
Two minutes later Elsa was screaming with glee while she clung to Jiraiya's neck. It was almost like they were flying and he hopped from tree to tree through the woods.
"This is amazing!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Jiraiya smiled to himself as he witnessed the joy Elsa found in simple tree jumping. A few minutes later he landed in the middle of a wide road. Jiraiya gently helped Elsa down to the road, which almost caused her to pout that they had stopped.
"Why have we stopped?" she asked, as she looked up at him.
"Because we are here." Jiraiya responded making a grand displaying motion with his hands as he gestured to the large gates that were behind him, which was why she hadn't seen them right away. She gasped as she took in the sight of the big red gate that had an enormous symbol above it that she recognized as meaning fire.
"Welcome," Jiraiya said grandly, "To Konohagakure."
Author Post Script:
Thank you so much for reading. please leave a review on your way out.
3/17/15: I have just started up a twitter account where I will be posting news on updates and future projects. so please follow me FicFanFoom7.