Elsa swam.

Turbulent swelling waves surrounded her, threatening to crush her from all sides—so she cut through pitched black water, desperate to get away from them—only able to see by the occasional burst of lightning overhead.

She was in the Dark Sea.

Someone needed her help. That's right, Anna was drowning. She had to find Anna. Save her. Her parents were drowning too—she had to get to them—had to save them all—she would be all alone if she lost them.

She would not lose Anna again.

Where was Nokk? She looked around frantically and tried to call the spirit mentally, but she did not come. Where was she?

She cried out for Anna but her voice was drowned by a clap of thunder.

A wave came crashing down on her then, thrusting her deep below the water's surface and spiraling her around so she had no perception of what was up or what was down. The wave passed as quickly as it had come and left her floating silently in the ominously dark sound. It was calmer down here, beautifully quiet. No waves were pushing and pulling at her, she didn't have to fight—and she gave herself over to the the gentle flow of the current, her mind blissfully silent for once.

It was rather nice not having any sensory input—no smells or sound, no manic thoughts or erratic magic, just simple serene weightlessness and peaceful blackness—and she didn't really have any desire to kick to the surface.

She was tired.

Breathing didn't seem necessary—in the back of her mind she questioned this, but as quickly as the thought was there it vanished. Why hadn't life always been like this? Had she learned this type of flowing calm much sooner, maybe everything would have been different. Maybe she never would have hurt Anna, maybe she never would have had to see the devastating looks of pity, frustration and disappointment on her parent's faces.

Things could've been so different...

A sudden sense of loss and nostalgia overcame her as images from her childhood flooded through her mind. Images of Anna, her parents then years of ice and isolation. The sudden jolt of the familiar repressed emotions from her formative years clenched at her heart and filled her with pity for that young girl she once was.

What a waste…

So many lost years…

But it didn't matter anymore…

'Please wake up.' A soothing voice whispered to her from very faraway. It was hard to hold onto the tangibility of that voice—it slipped away as suddenly as she heard it and she was once again lost in the alluring dark tranquility.

Time didn't seem to exist in this place and she briefly wondered if she was stuck there—but that thought too vanished instantly.

'Wake up sis—please don't leave me again.' Another voice, again too faraway to grasp before it slipped from her awareness.

Soft.

Calm.

Flowing.

Tranquility.

Darkness.

Peace.

Something else eventually cut through the thick darkness to her, softly at first then increasingly louder, clearer and constant.

Music.

The sound of a voice rippled in a distorted manner through the current and circled around her, mixed with other musical sounds she couldn't quite place. For a moment she thought it was her mother calling out to her again, and she had a desire to ignore it—too tired to answer this time—but this voice was different and it wasn't the most prominent thing she heard.

Hauntingly bewitching flute music is what totally encapsulated her—filling her with love and warmth and blissful happiness, and suddenly she didn't want to be in this dark soundless place anymore. She wanted that sound, to follow it—to follow it to light and love and colors and—

Life.

She wanted to live.

She didn't want to waste any more time in isolation as she had done so long ago—now was her time to truly, finally live.

The music tugged at her insides and pulled her up, up towards the surface of the water, like a siren call—and she let it carry her, transfixed and enamored by every note as it enveloped her completely. It felt like she was falling upwards instead of down—falling together instead of falling apart. Her soul was entirely absorbed in the feeling of the music, yet her mind could only focus on one thing, one person: Honeymaren.

Maren.

Life.

Those two concepts were mutually intertwined in her mind now—one did not exist without the other. Living was to be with Maren and being with Maren was living.

Maren had shown her what it meant to live, to truly feel alive—the freedom and beauty it could be—and she wasn't ready to give that up yet.

A sudden desperate urge see her, to hold and be held by her and get out of this dark place overwhelmed her. She started kicking towards the surface, letting the music pull her up while kicking with a force, a desire, a will to live.

Wake up.

Anna. Anna needed her too.

Several voices called to her now and mixed together—the closer she got to the surface the clearer she could hear them. Maren, Anna and—her mother.

Wake up Elsa—wake up.


Elsa's eyes fluttered. For a moment she was completely disoriented, it was dark and she wondered if she was still underwater. Slowly her eyes adjusted and she realized she was not, she was in a lavvu and light was streaming in through the hole in the ceiling, casting just enough light into the hut to see.

Immediately she tried to place where she was, why she was here but it wasn't coming to her. Slowly she became aware of her bodily sensations and realized that her left arm and ribs were sore—rather her whole body felt like it had been trampled by a horse. She glanced down and realized she was naked from the waist up, except for the bandaging that wrapped her entire torso and arm.

Then all at once it came back—the squid attack, her arm, the horrible stitches, Maren and—Anna.

Anna.

Where was she—was she alive? Her head jerked frantically to the side searching, which was a mistake as it sent a dizzying headache straight to her eyes. It only lasted a moment then her eyes found and focused on her sister, sleeping peacefully to her right, a bandage wrapped around her head. Anna's hand was holding hers. She squeezed it, said a silent thank you then let out a breath and relaxed.

'Elsa?' A voice whispered from her other side.

Maren.

She turned her head, slowly this time to find two warm brown eyes smiling down at her.

'Hi.' Maren said with a gentle smile and let out a sigh.

She smiled back with tired eyes. She had to fight to keep them open, but it was worth it to be able to look into those brown eyes, so full of emotion—she was sure one day she would finally drown in them.

Maren let out another breath and bent down to kiss her. Softly, gently and lightly she kissed and Elsa returned it, needing it so.

'You really scared me.' Maren whispered. Elsa could feel her breath as she spoke only inches from her own lips. 'I thought, for a minute I'd lost you.' A tear slipped down her cheek and onto Elsa's.

'I love you.' The whispered words flowed from Elsa's hoarse throat before she could analyze them, she spoke what she felt—what she'd been feeling for a long time and it felt so good to finally say it. She'd nearly died without telling Maren, and she couldn't lose another precious second keeping it inside.

Maren pulled further from her face to look into her eyes, tears welling but she was not crying. Looking as if she wasn't quite sure what Elsa had just said, but her eyes told Elsa she had heard.

'I should've said it before.' Elsa whispered, her voice quivering and her own eyes burning with emotion, but tears did not come. Maren smiled, shook her head slightly, then tears did start to roll down her cheeks. She said nothing, but held Elsa's face in her hands and bent down to kiss her again, and Elsa could feel her quivering, holding back emotion in her lips as they kissed. Finally she pulled away, her lips still hovering just above Elsa's.

'I love you too, so much.' Maren whispered with a smile into Elsa's mouth and her breath hitched. Elsa smiled too—hearing those words from Maren's lips was the sweetest sound she had ever heard and her heart sung with the love she felt. They kissed again and Elsa gently extracted her hand from Anna's to reach up and place it over Maren's that was still holding her cheek. Maren finally broke away and leaned one arm over Elsa's torso, propping herself up there and leaving her other hand on Elsa's cheek, stroking it with her thumb.

'You almost left us.' Maren whispered again, still staring at her with such love and intensity—it almost hurt.

'I felt myself slipping away—in the darkness.' Elsa said and let out a wavering breath. 'It was so calm, so peaceful and I wanted to stay—but I heard this beautiful music and it snapped me out of it.' Maren was still staring at her with soft teary eyes. 'Maren, all I could think about in the darkness, and out at sea when I wasn't sure we were going to make it back—was you. I was so afraid I was never going to see you again.'

'I'm right here. I'll always be right here, I'll always be the rock you can grab hold of in the darkness.' Maren grabbed her good hand and brought it to her lips and kissed it.

Elsa took a deep breath and smiled. Maren had this way of speaking words directly to her soul, getting her to feel deeper emotions than she ever knew she was capable of.

Suddenly, sniffles could be heard quietly coming from the right side of Elsa. Elsa and Maren both turned their heads in surprise.

'I'm sorry—you guys, but—I heard all of that—' Anna sucked in another breath and let out a sob of tears, unable to finish her thoughts. She was looking upward, fanning her face.

'Anna.' Elsa smiled and reached out for her hand. Anna grabbed it and squeezed. 'I'm so glad you're alright.'

'Me too. I mean you, I'm glad you're ok.' Anna said and moved to sit up. Elsa felt Maren tense.

'Anna, careful.' Maren said quickly, but Anna was already up sitting cross legged looking at them. She closed her eyes for a minute then opened them again with a smile.

'Whew. Sorry, dizzy.'

'You have a head injury.' Maren deadpanned, sitting upright, her eyes wide as if she feared Anna might tip over unexpectedly.

'I'm fine now, it's fine.' Anna said, waving her off. Anna was smiling, her eyes still looked tired but very alert and they kept flicking from Elsa to Maren and back to Elsa again as if she wanted to say something but was holding it in.

'What Anna.' Elsa asked when her sister continued to say nothing, but stared at them with a knowingly pert smile tucked to the side of her lips.

'Nothing, nothing. I just wanted to get a better view of this.' She gestured her hands between Elsa and Maren. 'Carry on.' She said and was deadly serious.

'View of what?' Elsa asked with a chuckle.

'This, just this. You two. I just love it.'

Maren curled her lips in to keep from smiling and glanced at Elsa. 'Well you need to drink.' Maren said and picked up a cup of water. 'You too.' Maren said and squinted her eyes at Anna. Anna rolled her eyes.

'What I have two bossy older sisters now?'

'I'm not bossy—' Elsa started but Maren already had the cup to her lips cutting her off. Anna snorted. Elsa drank.

'Ryder will be hearing about this from me.' Anna jibed. Maren chuckled and rolled her eyes.

'You get one free pass Anna, because you're injured. After this it's free game. If you and Ryder start a sibling war, Elsa and I will be forced to finish it.'

Elsa turned her eyes to Anna and shrugged. She has a point.

Anna squinted her eyes playfully. 'Fine. Next game night. Younger siblings versus older—be there or be square. Then we'll see who has the last laugh.' Anna cackled in a low tone. 'Because—we will, get it, because Elsa's really not that good at—' Anna stopped herself. Elsa and Maren were both glaring at her. 'Anyway I'm going to stop talking now because I'm outnumbered and scared.'

'Wise girl.' Elsa said.

'I'm going to go find Kalle so she can check on you both. You two will be alright for a minute?' Maren asked and looked to Anna. Anna nodded. 'I'll be right back.' Maren said to Elsa and smiled, squeezing her thigh before standing and exiting the lavvu.

Anna's eyes turned back to her with a creased brow and she looked her up and down for a moment before speaking. 'She loves you, you know.' Anna said with a smile.

'I gathered that.' Elsa said with smile.

Anna smiled and took up Elsa's good hand in her own, concern still etched in her features.

'How are you really?'

Elsa took a breath. 'Ok. I'm—ok. Really sore. Still tired. How're you?'

'Eh, I feel pretty good actually. I get dizzy if I sit up too quickly and I still have this dull headache but I feel mostly fine. You need to take some of those herbs Kalle gave us, they work amazing for the pain.' Anna said and wiggled her eyebrows. Elsa smiled and nodded.

'I'm really sorry Anna—I had no idea. I—still have no idea why this happened. I've gone that way across the sea so many times…'

'Don't Elsa. Don't start doing that again. It was an accident. Who knows why—we'll have to figure that out—but later. You saved my life. Can you just focus on that for once?'

Elsa paused, blinked then nodded. Anna was right.

'Hey, what did you mean before—when you were talking about the darkness. You said, you wanted to stay?'

Elsa blinked again and creased her brow—how to explain that to Anna. No more lies. 'I did want to stay.' Anna's brow creased, she was looking down. She had turned Elsa's palm face up and was tracing patterns in it with her finger. 'It was quiet and dark and completely tranquil. I can't remember ever feeling that calm or at peace in my entire life. It was all encompassing. No thoughts, no magic no fear. Just, peace.'

Anna was still looking down, tracing designs in Elsa's palm and nodding slightly. 'I can see why you'd want to stay there.' She whispered sadly.

Elsa grabbed Anna's hand and shook it then, forcing her to lift her eyes back to her own. 'But I didn't stay. Because of you. And Maren. I couldn't bear to be without either of you.'

This caused a small sad smile to crease over Anna's lips. Her brow was still scrunched and she looked like she was trying to work something out.

'What is it?'

Anna took a deep breath. 'Nothing. Just something I need to work on with myself I think. I'm trying to be better about not freaking out whenever I think I'm going to lose you somehow. It's just, hard. I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever get over it.'

'Anna I'm never going to leave you.'

'I know. I believe you. I'm just on edge I guess, with all of this. Seeing that other girl like you die in the Ahtohallan memory—I don't know.' Anna shook her head slightly as if she were frustrated with herself. 'I don't know why it showed us that…'

Anna did have a point, that was a very strange memory Ahtohallan had chosen to show them. 'Well we will figure out what it means together, try not to worry about it in the meantime. Please.'

Anna nodded just as Maren, Kristoff, Kalle and Yelena came strolling back into the lavvu.

'You should be lying down.' Kalle commanded as she came near. Anna flinched as if she were in trouble. 'You're finally awake, good.' Kalle said to Elsa as she knelt beside her. She lifted her chin and looked into her eyes, pulling Elsa's eyelids up and down and inspecting. Ouch.

'Good.' She announced. 'How are you feeling?'

'Good, mostly. Tired. Sore.'

'The pain, how is the pain?' Kalle asked as if she were speaking to a child.

'Oh, um it's bearable. Not great.'

'Take these.' Elsa's eyes went wide as Kalle stuffed a handful of herbs into Elsa's mouth. 'Chew them each hour. The pain will subside.' Elsa made a face as she chewed—she had tasted better things. Anna snickered.

'You're next.' Kalle said offhandedly as she felt the pulse on Elsa's wrist. Anna immediately closed her mouth. 'Your pulse is still weak from the blood loss, you need to eat. She doesn't eat meat right?' Kalle asked Maren over her shoulder as if Elsa were not there. Maren nodded. 'Then make sure she eats a good amount of nuts as a replacement. You both must eat slowly at first. Tell someone if the pain worsens or if you feel ill in any strange way. We will change the bandages in a few days.'

'Now you.' Kalle turned her hawklike gaze on Anna. Anna's eyes went wide and she protested.

'Kalle I feel fine, you checked me earlier, I'm good. Please?'

'That is the pain herbs talking, I will check you anyway.' It was Elsa's turn to let out a quiet snicker. Anna shot her a nasty glare.

Kalle moved over to Anna and did the same procedure of yanking her eyelids up and down, looking for any signs of who knows what.

'Ow.' Anna said when Kalle finished. Kalle narrowed her eyes at Anna.

'Any dizziness, headache?'

'Headache is better. I get a little dizzy if I sit up too quickly.'

'Alas, why you should not be sitting up at all.'

Anna let out a sigh.

'You can prop them up so they aren't laying entirely horizontal, but they need to stay put and rest.' Kalle compromised, nodding to Kristoff and Maren. 'I will be back later.' Kalle got up and left as swiftly as she had come in, like a brief deadly tornado.

Yelena lit a fire in the central pit—evening was upon them already. Elsa realized she must have slept most of the day.

'You two gave us all quite a scare.' Yelena said as she tended the fire. 'The Fifth Spirit and the Queen of Arendelle must take more care than most. Your lives affect many others. Keep that in mind girls.' Yelena said, staring at them both then glancing at Kristoff and Maren. It wasn't a reprimand—but it was something very close to one and Elsa felt like a child in the presence of it. 'I'll leave you to rest.' Yelena said, then left the hut.

'Oh boy, she's mad at us.' Anna said nervously after Yelena left.

'That's just how Yelena gets when she cares. Don't worry too much.' Maren said casually. 'But she's not wrong. You two need to be careful—I know this was an accident, but it's still good advice.' Maren added as she walked over and knelt next to Elsa. She had a bowl of sorrel soup and a plate of berries and nuts with her. She set it down and gently lifted Elsa to prop her up higher so she could eat. Elsa winced.

'Sorry.' Maren whispered. 'Which do you want, soup or berries?' She asked. Elsa made a face. 'Els, you're never hungry, but you need to eat.' Maren said exasperatedly.

'Eat.' Anna commanded over her shoulder, taking a breath from the soup she was already gulping down that Kristoff had handed her.

'Honey I think you should slow down.' Kristoff tried to interject, but Anna was clearly starving and having none of it.

'Berries.' Elsa decided finally. The thought and smell of the soup made her nauseated.

'Unsurprised.' Maren said with a smirk and raised eyebrow then placed the plate of berries in her lap.

Anna had already set her bowl down, completely empty. She sat very still looking straight ahead with a strange look on her face.

'Anna?' Elsa asked, suddenly concerned with the ill look on her face.

Yelena and Kalle walked back in suddenly. 'We forgot the—'

Just then Anna turned and vomited all her soup back up right onto Kristoff's lap. He flinched, but then sighed and held Anna's hair out of the way as she finished.

Elsa just stared, mortified, her mouth slightly agape.

Yelena and Kalle stopped abruptly, and let out simultaneous exasperated sighs. 'Drums.' Yelena finished, a dead look in her eyes.

'Eat slowly I said.' Kalle lamented.

Anna sat up and wiped her mouth, glancing around at all the people staring at her. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged:

'Sorry.'


A/N: A lighter-ish chapter after all the drama.

This song is still relevant, I was listening to it while writing Elsa underwater:

THE FROZEN CALL - Ancient Nordic Chant - Artist: Jonna Jinton

My Tumblr is Northuldrana btw. I post story updates and other Frozen things for those interested.

Hope everyone is doing well!