So,

First off, thanks so much for the lovely reviews! I'm very grateful for them! And thank you also for answering the question I posed before the last chapter. Shorter, more frequent chapters it is!

Hope you're well! I also hope this is mostly typo-free. :)

Thanks so much for reading.

ssg.x.

CHAPTER 4
SPECTRES OF DEATH

Kristoff decided he loved Anna most when she was being incredibly stubborn. It showcased just about every one of her best qualities. She was clever, strong, loyal and funny. And beautiful, he remarked, as he watched her face flush and her beautiful eyes narrow angrily. He was sure he'd have preferred he wasn't the one on the other end of all that stubbornness just then, though.

"Traitor," she spat, nimbly climbing up the back of the coach that was to take Queen Elsa to the docks. Once on the imperial, she started swinging her sister's luggage over the side. Kristoff watched all three bags hit the ground for the fourth time in half an hour. Amused, he watched Anna grabbing one of the handles of Queen Elsa's trunk. It was clearly too heavy for her, but damned if she wasn't determined to get the thing to join the rest of her sister's things on the ground. When pulling the trunk wasn't getting her anywhere, she tried pushing it, then lifting it. Finally, she flopped down beside it, completely out of breath.

"Are you done?" Kristoff asked, smirking. Anna glared at him.

"You know, I thought for sure you'd be on my side."

Kristoff climbed up the back of the coach and sat down beside her. He tugged gently on one of her braids. She swatted his hand away. Kristoff leaned against the side of the trunk and sighed.

"There are sides?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "Of course there are sides. Elsa wants me to be on board with her travelling to the Influenza Isles, aka Prince Homicide McManiac territory. Alone."

Kristoff shrugged his shoulders. "See? That's where you're wrong."

"Wrong about what?" Anna asked, looking hopeful.

"Wrong about Queen Elsa," Kristoff said. "She doesn't want you to be on board. She's going whether you like it or not."

"Oh, that's real nice," Anna muttered. Kristoff chuckled.

"Come on, Anna. She's a big girl who knows how to take care of herself. He Who Shall Not Be Named is locked up, and Queen Elsa has met Mommy and Daddy McManiac more than once since then."

"And what about the influenza?"

"You yourself told me the doctor called your sister a 'miracle of science'. He truly believes she can't contract influenza. Kai and Gerda both confirmed that they can't recall her falling ill once since birth. Whatever this thing is inside of her, it's protected her."

Kristoff leapt from the top of the coach, landing below on both feet with a thud. He reached his arms up for Anna. She turned her head, refusing to look at him.

"What if something happens to the ship?"

"She'll freeze the water."

"What if she gets kidnapped?"

"She'll freeze the kidnappers."

Anna looked at him through the corner of her eye. Kristoff smiled, gesturing to his open arms with his chin. She started to laugh, finally obliging him by leaping off the carriage and into his arms. He closed his eyes and held her tightly for one long, silent moment. She sighed happily.

"I'm just scared, you know. If something ever happened to her…"

"I know, Anna. I know."

"I wish I could go with her," she said softly.

"Anna, you're a strong, independent girl—"

"A strong, independent woman," Anna corrected.

"A strong, independent woman," Kristoff revised, stroking her hair, "but you can't bat influenza off with a guitar."

"I know," she said. She stood up straight and held her hands up in front of her. "Okay, fine. She can go."

Kristoff gave her a lopsided grin. "Yes. Because you clearly have a choice in the matter."

Anna ignored him. Once again, she climbed up the back of the coach and onto the imperial. For half a second he thought she was going to try to have another go at Queen Elsa's trunk, maybe try to heave it over the side and crush him with it. Instead, she dangled her legs over the side and casually leaned against the trunk, looking down at him with a cheeky little smile on her face.

God, he loved her.

Anna clapped her hands, drawing him out of his trance. "Hey! Don't just stand there staring, you big Scandinavian goon! Pass me a bag! My sister's got a boat to catch!"

oooOOOOooo

"What do you think about this one?"

Elsa slowly turned around in a silk cerulean day dress, the sixth dress she had put on that day in an attempt to find something suitable to wear for her first visit to the castle the royal family of the Southern Isles inhabited. She knew how to dress for funerals, but how did one dress for a viral outbreak? And if the King and Queen's youngest son was dying, she couldn't very well show up dressed like a spectre of death.

Gerda nodded her approval. "This one's lovely, Your Highness. But then I've liked all the dresses you've tried on."

"You're very kind, Gerda. But this is a very delicate situation. I need to look solemn, but I don't want to look like a funeral director. At the same time, I don't want to look too…festive," Elsa said, wringing her hands together, her nerves starting to get the better of her. "What about my hair? Does my hair look okay?" She picked up the front of her dress so as not to trip over the hem as she walked quickly to her full-length floor mirror. She slipped her feet into the shoes that waited for her there and leaned in close to her reflection to get a good look at her hair, which she'd done up herself in a pinned up waterfall braid, rather than have Gerda or one of the other girls do it. She smoothed some of the stray hairs, both real and imagined, back into place.

She wished she could have had Anna help her with all of this. No one could put her at ease the way her sister could. But Elsa would have had to tell her about Hans, and she wasn't quite sure how she would have reacted to the news. If it upset Anna, that was one thing. But if Anna's reaction was similar to Gerda's, Elsa couldn't predict how she'd feel about that.

Once Elsa was ready to go, Gerda draped a charcoal cape around her shoulders. As the older woman gave her a final once-over, Elsa dropped her chin, a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth.

"Gerda…"

"Yes, Highness."

"Is it true about Prince Hans? Is he really dying?"

Gerda was visibly thrown by her question. She didn't ask Elsa how she'd come by the rumour, which Elsa was grateful for. She didn't want to have to admit to eavesdropping. She felt bad enough about it as it was.

"I'm afraid he might be," Gerda finally replied, seeming to choose her words carefully. "Word is that no one's been allowed to see him for weeks now. He was confined to a room in a separate wing of the palace from the rest of the royal family, and no one's seen hide nor hair of him since. They say his was one of the first cases diagnosed." She glanced up at Elsa, and Elsa got the distinct impression Gerda was trying to gauge her reaction to everything she had just said. Elsa felt herself wilting beneath the woman's gaze. She quickly changed the subject.

"These shoes," Elsa began awkwardly, lifting her skirts and wobbling on one foot to show Gerda the gold and navy embroidered mule that adorned the other. "Do they look okay?"

"You look beautiful, Queen Elsa. Regal."

"In that case," Elsa said, straightening up and throwing her shoulders back in an attempt to live up to Gerda's compliment. "I'm ready to go."