It was a great day. Alex was just the most happiest person on the day.
A week ago, Kristoff had asked him to be his best man. Introvert as Alex may be, he had managed a 'yes' and secretly promised not to make a fool of himself.
He thought about how far they had come.
He had met Anna 3 years ago, when her sister, Elsa froze the kingdom of Arendelle. Being a person who can judge the other person on just seeing through their eyes, he had seen that look on Elsa's face before she left through the doors.
FEAR. Not for herself, but for her sister who had never known of her powers, one who was always just outside that closed door waiting for Elsa to let her in. He immediately knew that she never meant any of what had tranpired that day, and decided to see what happens next... by travelling with Anna.
This is a completely new and very important character in this fan-fiction.
Alex is a person of many talents.
His main skill is of being a hardcore warrior who thinks that life is just a game. He's just like the most terrifying hero who is very complex and also extremely unpredictable in his actions.
He's fought and seen unimaginable things(blood and torture) which make him tougher than the most toughest of warriors out there, capable of risking his life for what he wants.
The wondrous thing about him, is that even after seeing how terrible the world can be, even after holding the most terrible secrets from the people he loves, he is not held back from fully experiencing the heat and the cold, that the world has to offer him. He is not held back by his fears and nor does he hold anyone back from feeling what the world is in it's truest most majestic form.
P.S. No one is gonna really like him for his actions, but they are the ones which are truly gonna help out the story go on, so bear with me as I take you on this journey ( which hopefully you'll like) and just...Ok I ran out of words...ahem this is awkward...moving on.
Enjoy!
Arrival.
"Anna! Come on we're getting late!!"
"Just a minute, I gotta get this right."
Elsa sighed to herself as she held that ice ladder to the ceiling, so that Anna could decorate it's ONE LAST HOOK. They had been doing this for hours and though they had shifted through multiple looks for the ceiling, they never quite got the one they had liked.
It would have been much faster if Anna had allowed her to decorate the ceiling with her magic, but she wanted to do it all herself, so as to get some credit for decorating at least something other than herself in the castle.
Speaking of Anna, she was dressed in a gold-ish colour of free flowing dress. It had intricate patterns of gold over it resembling what looked like sunflower.
Her hair was tied up in a bow and she could imagine her face scrunched up cutely as she was trying to knot the cloth.
Her dual swords, a gift from Alex, were hanging limply from her sides. The only reason they wore it at all times was that Alex had taken their promise, not to keep their weapons away from themselves. And for good reason too as was demonstrated 6 months ago, when they were all pushed out of the castle by the spirits and no one except Alex had their weapons on them.
Speaking of the devil,
"Hey, are you guys done?"
"Not yet Alex just a minute." Anna replied.
He smiled and shook his head as he kept down some more material on the table.
"Anna, you've been saying one minute since the last hour! Honestly, if you don't get down here in the next 10 seconds, then I'm gonna take the ladder back!" Elsa said forcefully.
"Haha, you wouldn't."
Elsa narrowed her eyes and and waved her fingers, making the ladder disappear from under Anna's feet.
Anna's fast reflexes helped her grab on to the hook at the very last second, but she was not pleased at all, "WHOA! HEY! LET ME DOWN!"
Alex and Elsa laughed at her figure hanging from the hook with a single hand.
"Nope. I guess I'll leave you hanging up there until you get some sense of time," Elsa said putting her hands on her hips.
"No you won't. You'll let me down right now!" Anna being queen, ordered her.
"Yeahaha... right," She said sarcastically. Being a former queen herself, and her older sister, she could easily defy her orders. Not that she took advantage of that, but sometimes, it was necessary.
Before either of them could do anything, she let go of the hook and plummeted down.
"Anna!" Elsa scrambled and managed to create a small pile of snow before Anna landed right into it...safe and without a scratch.
"Ha!! Told ya!" Anna exclaimed victoriously jumping off the pile before her dress could get wet.
Elsa's shocked face was priceless. She looked as if she was gonna yell at her but just chuckled after recovering and rested her forehead on her fingers. Damn she was good!
"Whew, does it look okay?" Anna asked looking up at the ceiling.
"It looks wonderful" Alex replied.
She smiled and then remembered something and widened her eyes.
"The party, oh-no."
"Congratulations on the realization smartypants." Elsa said half laughing and half scolding all the while dragging her by her hand out off the halls. Alex followed suit.
They rushed through the corridors and got to the party just in time as it started.
Mattias was at the gates talking to a few other soldiers. He turned around to see them rushing toward the halls
"What do you think you were doing?" Mattias looked at them sternly, "We were so worried about you"
"I'm really sorry Mattias, but we were doing some... work." Anna told him.
He sighed, "You're gonna get me in trouble some day."
"Relax Mattias, it's not like anyone's gonna attack us in the castle anyway" Elsa told him.
"You never know what life will throw at you and when it does..."
"...You need to be prepared and just do the right thing... we know, you told us this a thousand times before" Anna said.
He looked down at his feet.
Anna felt ashamed of herself and immediately felt sorry for saying that.
"I'm sorry Mattias, I really didn't mean to say it like that, but you know that we can protect ourselves right? Besides, we also had Alex for company, so we were pretty safe."
Mattias looked at Alex who shrugged, and said, "It's quite true that they were safe with me around, and they were pretty safe without me around so... In any case, nothing bad would've happened to them."
Mattias gave up, "Ok fine! But don't get into trouble," And he chuckled.
"Speaking of trouble..." Elsa said nervously as she pointed to an angry figure coming toward them, with a reindeer and a snowman behind him.
"Where do you three think you were! We searched the whole castle for you, we almost alerted the whole kingdom of your absence!" Kristoff asked angrily.
"I'm sorry Kristoff, we were just inside the second halls." Anna said with a pout.
Kristoff sighed.
"Oh gods! Why can't I ever stay mad at you?"
"Yep. You're not the only one" Elsa added.
"Probably cause I'm too cute for you guys to handle" She said loosening her hair and whipping it back flirtatiously.
They laughed cause they all knew it was true.
Anna really was the cutest in their small family. Her beautiful turquoise eyes shone bright with love and joy. Along with some mischievous humour.
Speaking of mischief, if someone met the sisters first time, they would have thought that it was only Anna who was mischievous.
In reality, it was actually Elsa who pulled off all the pranks, as Alex had painfully discovered about a year ago, when she was still queen, all of his clothes had been swapped to a clown's clothes. Naturally, his suspicion went to Anna first as she was the only one who was the prankster and had access to Alex's room, but after she truthfully denied even knowing who would do such a thing (after laughing hard first obviously), he decided to wear the outfit and see who had done it. Elsa had never thought that he would actually wear it, and had planned to turn his clothes back in the dead of night. Of course, she couldn't contain herself while people laughed at his outfit and even though she tried to hide the fact that she was feeling extremely guilty, she was caught red-handed while trying to convert all his clothes back to their original state with her magic. He had never laughed that hard, in his life.
Of course, life in Arendelle couldn't get smoother for him as he was recruited as the chief advisor for the courts and military along with a title for leading the judicial court, he was pretty successful at all his jobs so far. His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar friendly voice.
"Your majesties," Kai greeted them by bowing, "they're here."
"Ooh yay! Finally!" squealed Anna and ran off in the direction of the docks. They all followed with a confused Elsa.
"Wait. Who's here?"
"Wedding guests" was all the reply she got from Kristoff.
She rolled her eyes. Of course they were wedding guests, but who?
"Look! There they are!" Olaf yelled.
And then her eyes rested on a massive hull of a majestic ship.
Embroidered with silken gold strands of decoration, and purple sails with a massive golden sun in the centre, she couldn't possibly miss that for any other kingdom. She gasped as a woman dressed in pink with long blonde hair descended from the planks with the help of a handsome young man with brown hair. The duo was completely unmistakable.
"Hey guys! It's so great to see you!" Rapunzel exclaimed as she ran to hug her hosts.
"Hey buddy, how's things?" Kristoff greeted Eugene with a smile and a handshake.
"Great! But before anything else, CONGRATS MAN!...and you too Anna, We've been looking forward to this moment since we met you guys."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You both are just perfect for each other." Rapunzel admired.
"Aww, thanks." Anna was touched.
"Yeah she's only saying that cause you're the only royal couple on the planet who gives her free hugs." Cassandra teased while disembarking.
Anna gasped audibly, "You came?!"
Cassandra shot her a questioning glance.
"Ahem... Of course you did...I mean I..I... wasn't really expecting... Nevermind."
Before Cassandra could say anything, Anna flew over and gave her a bone-crushing hug. "This is honestly one of the best surprises I've got today."
Elsa laughed. She knew very well how awkward this situation could've gotten without that hug.
Cassandra, though not a fan for hugs, returned it with pleasure. As Alex got to know from Rapunzel, Cassandra revealed her true emotions only around very few people. Fortunately, Anna and Elsa were two of those very few people.
He saw a white horse with a chameleon on his head come thundering down the planks.
"Whoa hey! Easy Max, you and that lizard don't wanna end up all drippy at the party do you?" Eugene teased.
They both narrowed their eyes at him as he backed away from the narrow pathway surrounded by water, to a portion without much vulnerability to falling or being pushed in the water.
Rapunzel giggled at her husband's antics.
"Come on, lets get inside" Elsa suggested.
Everyone agreed.
"So how's the forest? I heard it was attacked?" Eugene asked Elsa.
"Well, the attacks have been happening quite frequently now, especially from some tribe that calls themselves the 'Nattskalere'."
"Weird name. Doesn't it mean nightscalers?" Cassandra asked.
"Yeah, it does." Elsa replied.
"Can't see the resemblance between those two, but hey, they are enemies right? So who cares about the really cool names?" Eugene teased.
Cassandra rolled her eyes, getting his obvious intentions.
Rapunzel looked concerned, "Do you need any help?"
"No, we have it under control." Elsa said politely refusing the offer but thanking her all the same. "The forest isn't really a great place for violence anyway, and the spirits aren't pleased about this. If any other army tries to interfere, they'll just lose it...again."
Anna and Kristoff nodded vigorously.
"And...we're not really keen on getting the Northuldra locked up again so...there's that," Anna added.
"Ok...just don't get into trouble."
"We don't. Trouble finds us." Olaf said.
"Ah ok... now this looks good." Alex said.
It was the middle of the night and they were the only two people in the castle awake at that time.
"She won't notice, would she?" Elsa asked him nervously.
"Of course not. She would be too busy trying to get her eyes off Kristoff.
She didn't look convinced and kept staring up at the ceiling trying to figure out how she could fix those decors without changing them too much.
"You know what, just put some sparkle on it." He suggested.
"Hmm...Ok."
She waved her fingers, and the ribbons started to sparkle lightly.
"Perfect." He praised her.
"Thanks. Now, we just gotta put up the other decors." She said yawning.
"You know, you could use some sleep right?"
"What? No I'm fine."
Alex chuckled. "The last time you said that, you almost fell off the clock-tower."
Elsa grinned sheepishly as she recalled, how Anna had grabbed her and Alex had grabbed Anna at the last second.
"Look, Elsa... I got this. Just go get some sleep."
"What about you? You didn't sleep yesterday too."
"Don't worry about me, I can go on like this for days. Besides, there isn't much of work tonight either, so I'll get some sleep."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." He replied surely.
"Okay then...good night."
"Yeah, you too."
He heard the door close and got to work.
He was halfway through putting up some stuff for Anna's birthday, as well as her wedding which were scheduled for the same day, when his ears picked up an unnatural sound. It was distant, but enough to put him on alert.
The source was unclear, but he strained his ears to no avail.
Maybe it was just some small animal making that noise.
He was almost done when he heard it again, a distant door crashing and it's sound resonating through the castle.
He decided to investigate.
He ran silently through the hallways and arrived at the relative location of the source. There was no one there of course.
He opened and checked all the rooms, but nothing out of the ordinary caught his eye.
Oh well... Maybe it was nothing much, except probably night guard.
He went back to the second halls to complete his work.
The rest of the night went uneventfully.
It was almost dawn when Alex finished the decorations. What was the point in sleeping now? So he headed down to the courtyard to check up on the progress of the wedding setup. As expected, it was complete. Now, all that was left was to decorate the primary courts. The Northuldra were going to arrive today morning as Anna had personally requested all of their presence.
Of course 'All' of them couldn't come as the forest was still a hotspot for battles for resources and power. Fortunately, Elsa had taken care that the Northuldra wouldn't be touched by erecting strong ice barriers around their camp and also requesting the spirits to protect them. The forest was probably even safer than Arendelle.
All the other guests were going to arrive tomorrow... on the day of the wedding. Right now, he had some spare time to think about what he was gonna say as Kristoff's best man.
He chuckled, not because what he was doing was funny, but because he was still getting used to the fact that he was Kristoff's best man. He had strongly expected Ryder to be his best man, and he was more than perfect too for that job.
He could speak to people especially an audience, much better than Alex. He had a better sense of humour, a friendlier face and every other characteristic feature that made him the best choice. Moreover, he was also one of Kristoff's closest friends. Though they had met only six months ago, they had gotten along pretty well. They found so many common factors among themselves, that they even called each other brothers. Ryder also practically worshipped Anna as his sister and Anna also returned the love, calling him as her brother too.
And yet, here he was, poised to be his best man. He had even asked them to reconsider, but they seemed sure. And he wasn't about to let them down. He owed them that to say the least.
For the past week, he had been trying to come up with ideas for the audience, and written down about thirty of them. Elsa thought that they were a complete disaster. And for good reasons too. No one wanted to hear how many court cases they had handled, or political matters they had solved. The recent ones he had written comprised of jokes that would just scare the guests out of their wits.
He scratched all of that out and tried to concentrate on humour that people would love, but was failing miserably.
Now, it was only a day to the wedding, and no one was going to help him out except his guts and brains. "Oh god! I'm so screwed," he cursed himself under his breath.
An hour later, when the sun was just above the horizon, and preparing to illuminate the summer sky with joy as Arendelle counted just a day for their beloved queen's wedding and birthday, Alex was just sitting in the same position he was an hour ago, with a blank sheet of paper infront of him. Why was this so hard?
"Hey Alex."
"Hi Elsa." He greeted her.
She came over and sat down next to him reading the few papers he had written and just had crumpled them up.
"You seem stressed?" she asked raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah its just that this whole thing about being Kristoff's best man is so hard, I'm not getting anywhere with it. Especially the speech."
She smiled and looked away.
"What?" He asked her confused.
"I told you already. Just be you." She said looking back at him.
"I can't be who I am. It would all be terrible. I don't wanna chase all the people out of Arendelle by saying something stupid and terrifying," Alex imagined a few guests screaming and running back to their ships. He shook that image out.
"I know you, Alex. You wouldn't do any such thing," She said soothingly and quickly added, "Not challenging you."
He laughed.
"Look, Alex, I know you for three and a half years now, and never even once have you ever let us down. The reason they chose you over Ryder, is that you know them better than he does."
He looked confused.
"Being best man, isn't about just giving a long speech about what others think was perfect, its about expressing what you have in your heart for them. It doesn't matter what people think about the speech, its about what the couple's best friend thinks of them. And it can be anything... love, hatred, joy, sorrow whatever that matters to you. That's the reason I'm telling you to be yourself. That's why they gave you this opportunity." She explained.
Alex had never thought of it like that.
"You really think I will be able to do this?" He doubted himself as he had never spoken in front of a large crowd. He also had no idea what to say.
"I know, that you will be able to do this...best."
He took a deep breath and started writing. It surprised him as thoughts from the deepest corners of his mind started pouring down the sheet, and within no time, with Elsa's help, he got down every last detail that his mind could cough up.
"Perfect." She said.
He smiled. This was easier than he had ever thought it would be.
"Thanks."
"No biggie."
Another hour had elapsed. The sun shining bright as the clock ticked near 10:00 am, the kingdom was preparing the streets with flags of the unison of Arendelle, Northuldra and the spirits. After all, the Northuldra were visiting Arendelle for the first time after more than 34 years, and they wanted to make it a perfect event.
The most enthusiastic people had even gone to lengths like painting their houses to match the looks of the forest, putting on costumes designed with the symbol of unison on it, and even painting the roads with welcome signs, not that they were allowed to do so, but no one was complaining anyway.
Very few select people were going to arrive, and though they seemed random to the people of the kingdom, the royals and Alex knew, that they were few of the best warriors of the Northuldra, just in case things went downhill. It was actually a suggestion of Honeymaren, to do so and she had also consulted this with Elsa.
It wasn't that she didn't trust Anna and Kristoff or Mattias or others who they had already met, it's just because there were some, who followed Runeard's path and still despised the Northuldra. Elsa had taken the promise of Yelena, that no one should be seriously hurt or killed if a battle should break out, and Anna had warned the people of Arendelle against hurting the Northuldra physically or mentally in any situation, and that if done so, will be dealt with on-spot and with terrible consequences. As far as Alex knew, no one was particularly keen on doing anything wrong on one of the happiest occasions in the history of Arendelle.
The clock chimed 10:00am and a second later, the horns erupted in the distance from the northern side. They had arrived.