Chapter 17
A/N: I apologize for the slow update – I won't bore you with excuses as to why.
"Elsa…" a voice softly called out to her, sounding as if its origin was another world away.
Who else could such a sweet and gentle voice belong to?
"Anna," Elsa muttered, and her throat burned from lack of hydration and a bruise darkening the pale skin at the base of her neck.
Elsa tried to open her eyes, but a heavy pressure on her lids made the task an impossible one. "Mmnh," she groaned, and let her eyelids remain closed. A gentle breeze brushed over her body and dried the slight perspiration on Elsa's forehead. She exhaled her breath and noticed her body felt extremely light.
Where am I? She thought. Her body was practically weightless, as if she was floating in a void of nothingness.
"Elsa?" It was definitely Anna's voice calling out to her – there was no mistake about it.
"Anna… I'm here," Elsa responded, and reached out. With much effort, she succeeded in slowly opening her eyes. What she saw was a blinding, white light, causing her to wince in pain. Her head throbbed and her ears rang. She shut her eyes and said, "A-Anna," as she grasped at the sides of her head.
This is too much. Elsa had never felt such pain before in her life.
A gentle hand brushed against her cheek, and she automatically reopened her eyes upon the soothing touch. Her vision was blurry, but she would recognize the lovely face in front of her anywhere.
"Anna?" Elsa tiredly said, and reached out to touch Anna – wanting to feel the familiar softness of her body. What she touched was only air brushing past her fingers. What?
Elsa swiped her hand again, but her touch would only go through Anna. "Anna, what the…" Desperately, she grasped at the visage of her beloved, but her attempt was only met with a fistful of air – emptiness. After the fourth and fifth attempt, Elsa was crying openly, but Anna would resume to stand calmly before her, smiling.
"Why? Why can't I touch you, hold you?" Elsa sobbed, and fell down on her knees before the phantom Anna. "What is this? Am I dead?" Elsa muttered, feverishly, to herself as she observed the lines on the palm of her hand. She could clearly see her hands before her, but her own vision was something she was finding hard to trust.
Anna sat down before her with the same comforting smile still on her face – she looked to be glowing, like an angel. She took Elsa's face into her hands and giggled, "You're not dead, silly."
Elsa stared into Anna's eyes and saw a resolute shine gleaming back at her – eliciting a wave of relief to wash through her shaking body. Anna leaned in to give her a lingering kiss on the forehead and mumbled against Elsa's skin, "You're alive. Now, time to wake up, Elsa, and fight."
As soon as Anna let the last word escape from her lips, the sensation of Elsa's consciousness being slammed back into her body made her wake up with a breathless gasp. The first sight she was greeted with was the ground traveling beneath her in succession to the sound of thunderous footsteps. Elsa looked to her right and realized it was a gigantic snowman who was lugging her around. She stared wide-eyed - and confused as hell - at what she was seeing. Don't tell me… Elsa thought. Is this Sergei, the lewd snowman Anna was telling me about?" Elsa couldn't believe it – Sergei was huge.
"Careful with, Anna!" Lady Alexandra's voice called out from below and Elsa maneuvered her head to the sight of Lady Alexandra, Bruno the bodyguard, and Hans walking with… "Anna!" Elsa cried aloud, but immediately cupped her hands over her mouth. Thankfully, no one seemed to have heard her.
Hans had Anna over his shoulder in the same fashion as Sergei was carrying Elsa. Elsa's heart pumped and she thought the worse as she fixatedly stared at Anna's limp body.
"She may be cute and unconscious, but that is no excuse to manhandle the poor girl," Lady Alexandra scolded Hans. Elsa let out a shaky breath of relief – Anna was still alive.
Hans scoffed and readjusted Anna's unconscious body on his shoulder. "Then why couldn't Bruno, you're large bodyguard, be the one to carry her?" Hans whined, and looked over at Bruno who was silently walking close to Lady Alexandra with the usual blank stare on his face.
"Bruno is more delicate than he looks," was all Lady Alexandra said, and smiled at Bruno. Bruno's lips twitched subtly – his version of a smile.
Hans grumbled and shifted Anna again by lacing his arm around Anna's bottom.
"Hey! What did I say about manhandling the, Princess!" Lady Alexandra shouted when she noticed where Hans' hand was.
"It was an accident!" Hans angrily replied and moved his hand as Bruno looked at him threateningly. "I-I mean, sorry," Hans corrected his response, his usual arrogance nowhere to be found." Besides, you're one to talk," Hans griped. "Didn't you practically fondle Elsa's body as you placed her on Sergei?"
Lady Alexandra glared at Hans, but an evident blush appeared on her face. "What are you implying?"
"Admit it, you have a major crush on Elsa," Hans smugly replied. "I saw the way you were looking at her before we wrapped her in the blanket – when she was only in her underwear," Hans specified.
Lady Alexandra pretended to readjust the ribbon on her blouse and said, "That is a ridiculous accusation." She then looked up at Sergei, and Elsa immediately ducked, also now fully aware she was still technically in her underwear, save for a flimsy blanket wrapped around her waist. She then heard Lady Alexandra say, "It's got nothing to do with having a crush. Besides, I think her heart belongs to someone else," Lady Alexandra finished, her tone somewhat melancholy. ]
"How can you even tell?" Hans responded.
"Just a feeling," Lady Alexandra said, vaguely.
"Right," Hans sarcastically said, and changed the subject. "Enlighten me again, why are we capturing the Princess and Queen when we could have just revealed Elsa's secret and cause a mutiny in Arendelle?"
"Because my dimwitted partner, I have bigger plans than simply taking over Arendelle," Lady Alexandra mischievously said.
"Dimwitted?" Hans said, but decided not to get into an argument with Lady Alexandra with Bruno around.
Elsa carefully angled her head to inspect her surroundings and realized they were completely surrounded by trees and mountains – civilization nowhere in sight. Elsa shifted her body to gain a better view, and in the process, accidentally chipped off a chunk of Sergei's snow on his shoulder. The glob of snow fell rapidly down straight onto Hans' head. Splat. Shit! Elsa thought, and quickly pretended to be unconscious.
"Argh!" Hans grunted loudly in pain. His exceptional balance kept him on his feet and maintain his steady hold on Anna.
"Stop, Sergei!" Lady Alexandra commanded the giant snowman. Sergei stopped and the inertia nearly shot Elsa off of his shoulder.
"Sergei, do this. Sergei, do that," Elsa heard Sergei speak for the first time. "I swear, If I wasn't promised something in return, I would back up and sit on this lady right now just to shut her up," Sergei continued to mumble in a deep, rumbling voice."
"I heard that, Sergei," Lady Alexandra said.
"Kiss my frozen butt," Sergei unabashedly rebutted.
"Now, now, Bruno," Elsa heard Lady Alexandra say, calming her bodyguard down. "He's just a silly man made of snow. Let's be calm, for now."
"Ouch, that really hurt, you know!" Hans said, bringing the attention back to himself.
"Stop whining. You'll live," Lady Alexandra said, and looked up at Elsa, but Elsa did her best not to move. "Sergei, sit boy," Lady Alexandra commanded the snowman like a dog.
"Sit on this," Sergei replied, and Elsa felt Sergei move his stick arm to make a gesture.
"My, my, you are certainly a grumpy snowman – nothing at all like your counterpart, Olaf," Lady Alexandra commented. "Bruno! I told you not to do anything to the snowman!" Lady Alexandra yelled at her overprotective bodyguard who was in the midst of furiously rubbing two sticks together to create a torch. Bruno stopped, and grunted disappointedly.
"Do as I say, Sergei, or I will not give you what you want," Lady Alexandra threatened the snarky snowman.
A few more disgruntled mumbles and Sergei eventually bent down to sit - Elsa felt as if she was on a descending elevator. The air whooshed around her and a hole was punched in her gut caused by the unexpected descent. She heard the thud of Sergei's bottom hitting the ground, causing a miniature earthquake from his large girth, and Lady Alexandra could now get a good look at Elsa.
Lady Alexandra touched her cheek and Elsa did her best not to shiver from the touch – not because it was pleasant or cold, but because a strong feeling of uneasiness washed over. "Are you awake, pretty girl?" Lady Alexandra whispered in her ear. Elsa's heart was beating extremely fast, but she stayed silent.
Should I blast her face right now with a fistful of ice or should I wait? Can I take them all on? Maybe I can somehow get Sergei on my side and get him to sit on them all – he seems to want to anyway, Elsa strategized. All Elsa knew was that her number one priority was to get Anna away from the walking turd sack which was Hans and as far away as she could from the rest of these nut-jobs.
"Hmm," was all Lady Alexandra said, and then Elsa heard her footsteps retreat. "Hans, let me take a look at Anna."
"What, why?" Hans answered, but did as he was told anyway. Elsa heard Hans lay Anna on the snowy ground, and all Elsa could worry about was how cold Anna must be.
"Elsa, if you're awake, I suggest you make it known now before… Well, I wouldn't want to harm your cute, little sister," Lady Alexandra egged her on.
Elsa's chest constricted and panic struck her heart as she weighed out her choices – she knew she could never allow any chance of harm befalling Anna, so she opened her eyes.
"Ah, there are those pretty, blue eyes!" Lady Alexandra gushed, and Elsa saw her move away from Anna's body.
Elsa looked upon Lady Alexandra's smiling face and then at Han's shocked face – he couldn't look her in the eyes for long.
"So you were awake after all," Lady Alexandra spoke again. She put her hands on her hips and looked disappointed in Elsa. "You know, it's not good manners to eavesdrop, pretty girl."
That compliment again, Elsa thought, and cringed at the phrase – it felt so strange hearing it from Lady Alexandra's mouth. "It's also not good manners to kidnap people," Elsa finally spoke.
A momentarily look of surprise crossed Lady Alexandra's face, but then she laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. "You're pretty and funny," Lady Alexandra giggled.
"And you said you didn't have a crush on her, but here you are excessively complimenting her like a rabid fan," Hans mumbled, out the side of his mouth.
Lady Alexandra hadn't heard him, but Bruno did. Bruno seemed to be up to his limit with Hans' mouth as he lifted Hans off his feet and held him easily over his head, ready to throw him.
"Bruno, what are you doing? Put the idiot down," Lady Alexandra noticed, and turned her attention to the two men. Everyone was finally distracted and Elsa knew if she had any chance of escaping, the moment may be her only opportunity. Elsa's eyes quickly locked onto Anna on the ground near Lady Alexandra. Could she do it? Could she rescue, Anna? Only one way to find out, Elsa made up her mind, and started a mad dash towards Anna's body.
Sergei noticed Elsa running away, but Elsa shot him a quick pleading glance, and surprisingly, the grumpy snowman did not stop her. Sergei watched silently as Elsa closed the distance between her and Anna. She was soon close enough to scoop Anna up in her arms, but by now, Lady Alexandra caught on to what she was doing.
"Sh—Bruno! She's getting away!" Lady Alexandra cried, but Elsa safely cradled Anna close to her, and was already running as fast as she could away from the band of crazies. She heard the sound of distinct crunching footsteps chase close behind her and Elsa quickly directed her arm back at the clambering bodyguard. A huge blast of ice expelled from her palm and struck Bruno hard, forcing him to cease in his pursuit. She heard Lady Alexandra growl in frustration and say, "Useless! Hans, Sergei, do something!"
Elsa turned to see if anyone else was chasing after her, but a misstep caused her to tumble down a large snow hill. She reflexively tightened her hold on Anna, and did everything she could to keep any injury from being inflicted onto Anna during the tumble. Elsa's breath was knocked out of her, and the left side of her ribs burned, but her grip on Anna never faltered all the way down the slope. They eventually landed at the bottom on top of a pile of soft snow. Elsa's whole body ached from the rough journey down. Anna was on top of her, uninjured, but still not awake. Elsa pressed a hand to Anna's chest, and felt the girl's heart beating steadily along with the slow, reassuring rise and fall of her chest. Elsa took a moment to hold Anna close to her and revel in the joy of having Anna safely in her arms again.
"I missed you," Elsa whispered against Anna's cold cheek as she hugged her. Elsa knew she hadn't put much distance between the lunatics - she had little time to spare before they would catch up to her. "Now, let's get you to safety." Elsa said, and lifted Anna in her arms as she got up on her wobbly legs. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to you as long as I'm here," Elsa swore, and walked forward towards a destination she was still unsure of.