Winter was slowly relinquishing its grasp on Arendelle, crocuses were sprouting from the ground that had started to soften. Snow was melting, the blanket retreated up the mountain once more. Days were still short however, and the cold still lingered on. Fires were often lit in braziers and hearths, candles and lamps placed about for light. It was the time of year when a man would be tired of the slow times in winter and start thinking about the summer and days enjoying the sun, when they would maybe work a little longer despite the dark.
Embers float like snowflakes on the cold air.
It was bath night. Freya still really enjoyed bath night. A long expanse of pale wet leg lay over hers and a soft well shaped rear sat in her lap. They were locked in the royal suite safely ensconced in the warm bath. "So Elsa..." Freya breathed into a quickly reddening ear and caressing it with her tongue, "What do you want to do now hmm?"
"Haaaaa... I'd like it if you could maybe include a little more of my eaaar..." Elsa leaned back against Freya harder, enjoying the soft contact points.
"That can be arranged." Freya said, taking the whole edge of Elsa's ear into her mouth with a smile.
A loud banging on the door to the room disturbed them. "Queen Elsa!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Elsa thumped the tub and left the water and her lover. She froze the water on her skin and thawed it, a quick way to dry off. She pulled a nightgown on and stormed from the bathroom to her door.
Alone in the bath Freya whined with disappointment, discreetly in case it travelled.
Elsa wrenched open the door. Two guards stood in the doorway. "Yes gentlemen?" Elsa kept her voice firm and regal.
"There is a fire ma'am, in the town." One began. Elsa started with shock and created shoes on her feet as she hurried past them, they hurried to keep up.
"My powers will stifle the flames."
"Yes, we hoped as much, we came as soon as alarm was raised." The man sounded relieved.
Elsa started to run but realised something. "Guard?"
"Yes ma'am?"
"Your coat please." Elsa indicated her state of not exactly dressed and the guard quickly complied. Now clad in something a little more robust Elsa began to use her powers, racing along a path of ice out of the palace and the castle.
Orange flames licked the sky in town. It was worse than she had first feared. Four buildings were alight, one was a weaver's storehouse shop, and the others were homes. Family homes.
The bucket chain of people was working as fast as they could, a crowd of people had gathered to help. "Is anyone still inside?" Elsa said with authority she really hoped hid her strange attire.
"The Aageson family!" Someone in the crowd shouted, "They are not out here!" A woman pushed to the fore, soot stained and crying. "They are my neighbours; the fire was just so fast!" As she spoke and pointed to the first house in the row a violent crack came from the timbers of the burning buildings.
"Very well." Elsa froze the coat she wore to provide some extra protection and stepped forward, blanketing the warehouse and other buildings empty of residents in snow.
Focusing on the house still occupied, she entered the home, quelling the flames with harsh frost but taking care to seek any person inside and not harm them.
Katja Aageson had been sleeping when scary noises and her mother's hand woke her to choking smoke and flame. Mother had hurried her and her baby sister but sudden bursts of heat and a tumble of wood had separated her from them and her father was nowhere to be seen.
The air was so hot and full of smoke, Katja lay on the floor in a corner, her parched lips found some cooler air at that level and she hungrily sucked it in. As the darkness crept around her an angel clad in a glowing blue light appeared and lifted her into a cool embrace.
The smoke and flame was overpowering almost but her ice halted it easily. As she walked through the house it became clear three of the family had not made it. "Keep it in, control." She whispered, fear and sadness now could harm anyone else. She had almost given up hope when a weak cough from a dark corner had her running, ignoring embers as an inconvenience.
A little girl, no older than five, she was breathing but only just. Elsa scooped her up and held her close while a blizzard quenched the flames. When she stepped from the house she spoke quietly to a guard. Freya met her in the street; she was consoling the woman who had alerted Elsa to the missing family.
"Katja..." The older woman sobbed and stroked the ash filled hair.
"The others did not make it." Elsa said quietly. "Please, I must get this child to a doctor." The woman was left to the comfort of her family who had escaped with her. The Queen hurried away with the little girl in her grasp. The physician's house was near and he was in the doorway watching the flames in disbelief.
"Queen Elsa!" The man saw her burden and rushed her through to his office.
"I found her in a corner." Elsa said, lying the girl on the examination table, she coughed weakly and shuddered. The sound and sight of it made Elsa's heart clench, her mind returning unbidden to another small girl in another time. Freya carefully took a hand and held it, smoothing the silver ring instead of taking a tight grip.
The doctor took a listening tool and pressed it to the girl's chest, is face went grave. "I don't think there is anything I can do..." He said, despair in his voice.
"But..." Elsa held up a hand in entreaty.
"She sounds like the drowned, she breathed too much smoke my lady. The best we can do is make her comfortable." He sat in a chair near his desk, sadness writ across his face.
"No. There must be something." Elsa picked the girl up and cradled her close, "I will consult me texts, she will be comfortable in the palace." The Queen stormed from the room and out of the house.
"What can we do Elsa?" Freya sounded her concern, keeping pace with the near running woman.
"The trolls, they know, they will know what to do."
In the palace courtyard guards were milling around but Elsa moved to the stables, avoiding the staff and keeping the girl close, feeling the shallow rise and fall of her chest against her own. "Could you prepare our horses?"
"Of course." Freya ran ahead and swiftly had their preferred mounts ready to go.
For the second time two horses rushed from the palace with a precious burden, rushing to a hidden valley.
"Grand Pabbie! We need help please!" Elsa hadn't even halted her horse when she shouted out. The rounded rock-like forms of sleeping trolls were soon milling about.
"Elsa, Freya? What is the matter?" One called out, concerned. There was a collective gasp when the little girl was handed down to Freya as Elsa dismounted.
"What is the hurt?" Grand Pabbie had been hurried forward.
"A fire, she breathed too much smoke the doctor said." Elsa knelt down level with the troll and took the child from Freya. "Please, can you help her?"
"I will try." The elder troll leant close to listen with care to the shallow breaths. Elsa and Freya watched closely. "She is burnt inside." He said, grave of voice, a stone finger traced the girl's windpipe and lungs. "But you brought her here swiftly, there is hope."
"Thank goodness..." Elsa felt the tense worry in her middle uncoil a little. She was surprised that she was so worried for a stranger. Freya gripped her shoulder in support, her eyes telling the feeling was mutual.
"I will need your help Elsa. Your magic is the antithesis to the fire."
"My Magic?" Elsa was taken aback, she lifted her right hand.
"Just a little." Grand Pabbie pressed his hand against the Queen's and pulled away with a blue glow trapped in his grip. He wove it between his hands, a chant and a little troll magic completed the preparations. The now white glob of power rested just above his hand and with one quick movement he had pressed it into the child's chest.
She coughed a little, just once and grey smoke filtered from her mouth and nose to dissipate on the air. Immediately the shallow breaths became steadier and stronger, colour began to return to the girl's cheeks.
"She is healed in body." Grand Pabbie proclaimed. "Though this child has hurts deeper than the physical. She is alone in the world now, I can see."
"She won't be alone." Elsa said, royal certainty in her tone. "We will make sure she is cared for." Holding the child close again she stood and gratefully took Freya's help to mount her horse.
"Thank you Grand Pabbie." Freya bowed to the troll.
"I am glad to have saved a life once more." He replied. The trolls watched the women leave. "A child in their future indeed." He chuckled, a gravelly sound.
"They'll do right by that girl." Bulda said with pride.
"Indeed they will."
Katja was settled in room in the palace, the first of many nights in the room though she would have been surprised to know that a Queen and her guard watched over her that night.