Disclaimer: Same as Chapter One

Chapter Two: Hobgoblin

Ana stared at the soft glow emanating from the streak in her hair. A comforting heat spilled from the roots of her hair into her head, down her neck, and into her heart. The hot energy surged through her like liquid light. She winched as the energy in her blood intensified. "Ana, what's going on?"

"It burns..."

"Here." Elsa held her hands over her sister's shoulders. A soft frost floated onto Ana's shoulders soothing the heat close to her skin, but not the burning deep within her core. "You're too young to have those heat waves that older women get."

"So are you," Ana laughed. Her amusement didn't last long as she recalled her mother had felt extremely hot at random intervals calling it 'passing child bearing age." Tragically, her parents had died at sea before her mother reached the end of her fertile age. The memory chilled her body more than Elsa's touch. The glow in her lock started to dim.

Elsa stroked her hair thoughtfully. "What were you dreaming about?"

Ana wracked her brain, but could only bring up fragments of her evanescent dream. "I'm not sure; heat...sand...a desert...is desert spelled with two S's or one?" As her dream faded from her memory so did the golden light she admired in the mirror. Elsa's frost suddenly bit her skin the way it should have when it first rested on her flesh. Ana snapped out of her musing about spelling, whipped around toward her sister and said, "What should we do?"

"Is your burning pain gone?" Elsa asked sweeping the frost from Ana's shoulders.

"Yes and so is the glow but..." Ana began.

"It could come back," Elsa finished her thought. "We don't know where it came from, but the trolls should be able to give us information."

"I don't want to go to the trolls." Ana said and Elsa raised her eyebrows at her. "I mean to say..." Ana stammered. "I don't mind them. In fact, I'd like to see Kristophe's family again, but not for magic advice."

"Are you afraid their advice might separate us again?" Elsa asked, nodding to show she shared the concern. "I understand your trepidation. I, too, share it. However, they were right about the true love melting the heart of ice. We are older and better informed now. We do not have to consent to any suggestion they make, like when we were children. It is important to gather all possible information." Elsa waved her finger in a scolding fashion, which Ana recognized as a behavior Elsa did when she was thinking or reprimanding herself.

Even though she knew Elsa's tick wasn't necessarily directed at her, Ana felt talked down to so she snapped. "You don't need to lecture me about research," Ana informed her sister.

"I'm sorry." Elsa folded her hands in her lap and inspected her fingers. "I guess I haven't practiced being a big sister in awhile. Do you want to build a snowman?"

"Yes." Ana jumped out of bed. "But first let's go visit the trolls."

"Ana, the coronation is tomorrow."

"So? We can still go tonight, get it all figured out and..."

Elsa nodded toward the drapes through which a rays of morning sunlight glinted. "I suppose I should have said, coronation is today," she said.

"Ana?" The voice of one of Elsa's attendants called from the other side of the door. "Have you seen your sister Elsa? She's not answering in her room."

"She's with me," Ana replied. She giggled at Elsa's mortified expression, knowing the idea of inconveniencing anyone, concerned Elsa deeply.

"Ana, you sound awake?" Came the bright voice of one of Ana's attendants.

"What are you implying?" Ana yawned. "I'm totally a morning person." This time it was her sister's turn to chuckle, as Ana tried in vain to flatten her impressive morning hair. The strawberry blonde sister gave a furtive glace in the mirror to check her white highlight which wasn't glowing but was certainly back in full force. Plucking a klut from her wardrobe, Ana hastily tried to cover the reappeared white streak.

"Don't hide it," Elsa commanded.

"And if my hair starts glowing again?"

"Wear it like it's the newest fashion craze because it's better to own it than fear it." The two sisters smiled at each other, but a loud crash interupped their moment of triumph. The arched window facing the mountainside burst open and a sphere of electric energy floated into the room. Summoning her magic to her finger tips, Elsa created an ice barrier between the intruder and the sisters. "Halt, by order of the queen," Elsa said her voice unwavering. The orb continued to advance toward the sisters either not heeding or unable to follow her command. Elsa swept her right hand up and icical spikes grew out of the shield. "This is your last warning before I encase you in a cage of ice. Halt and state your business." The sphere impaled itself on a spike seemingly as unaffected as Olaf when he stabbed himself on occasion. With a groan of effort, Elsa started to form a cage of ice, which rose from the floor of Ana's bedroom like her castle. The orb passed through the ice and engulfed Elsa's hand. Ana grabbed her sister's waist to help her sister try to dislodge her hand but the sphere enveloped them both. Ana could feel painful electricity biting her skin. She clung on her sister, but a strong electric shock knocked Ana out of the orb onto the floor of her bedroom. Before Ana could pick herself off the floor the sphere broke through the other window with Elsa trapped inside. The surge of hot magic Ana had felt after waking from her dream flared up. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her white lock glowing gold again.

"It's taken Elsa," Ana screamed. She raced from her bedroom past her attendants, down the tower steps, through the hall, and out to the courtyard.

Rapunzel stepped through Arendelle's open gates and immediately lost her footing. With arms whirling like windmills and feet bicycling, she skidded across the ice rink covering the castle's main courtyard. The frozen fountain halted her friction-less frenzy when she grabbed for it's edge. Once she'd composed herself, she glanced around to see if anyone had seen, but the courtyard was mostly vacant. A couple of guards skated up to her to make sure she had sustained no injuries and wasn't in need of any assistance. "Thank you," she mumbled. The petite brunette guard offered her a hand and the muscular red-haired guard offered her skates.

"Are you okay?" Flynn called with notes of both amusement and sympathy in his voice, since he could see that she was not gravely injured. He and Maximus had yet to step on the courtyard turned ice rink. Both horse and man, gingerly placed hoof and foot on the ice. They nodded to each other, took another step, lost their balance in unison. With a smolder breaking thud, Flynn fell forward and slid on his stomach, while all four of Maximus' legs spread in different directions.

"Take care of Maximus. I'll get my fiance," Rapunzel told the guards as she tied up her skates. "Maximus is the horse," She clarified unnecessarily to the guards who were already headed for the careening horse. "Well, you never know what curse could have befallen my boyfriend," Rapunzel explained, when the short brunette gave her a bewildered look across the courtyard. Skating over to Flynn, she grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Looks like this kingdom really has an ice queen," Flynn remarked. Rapunzel elbowed him. "Ouf, how did learn to skate so well?" He accepted a pair of skates from a third guard. "Thanks."

"When you have hair as long as I did your balance gets very good."

"You're early princess Rapunzel, would you like to wait in the tea room until the coronation?"

"I'm having fun skating before the crowds arrive-what the?!"

A giant sphere of energy burst from the window of a high tower overlooking the courtyard. Broken glass rained down on the ice rink in a high pitched cacophony. Rapunzel guarded her and Flynn's faces with her frying pan, but Maximus stood in front of his two masters and the nearby guards shielding them from the glass shards ricocheting off the ice. Pascal remained safely in one of Maximus' saddlebags. The magic sphere landed on the ground and dissipated revealing an elegant dark-haired man with sky blue eyes, arched brows, and long flowing robes. He held Elsa around the waist. She struggled and yelled, but electric energy bound her feet and hands. Blowing on his face she made frost appear on his cheek and over his mouth. When she realized her breathe could create a little freeze power she immediately started huffing and puffing on hand bindings which absorbed the frost. He brushed the frost off his lips, ran his free hand along her jaw, tilting her head up against her will. As though mocking her defense tactic, he exhaled on her lips causing his magic to cover her mouth.

"Do not touch me. I have your queen," He commanded in a silvery voice.

Frying pan in hand, Rapunzel slipped behind the man. Just as she took a swing at his head, he whirled around and shot a ball of electric energy at her. Rapunzel flew backward hitting the ice painfully and continuing to slide until Maximus lay down on the ice so that her momentum was absorbed by his side. He gave the same treatment to several guards who attacked him.

"Are you all deaf? I have your queen. Do you want harm to come to her?" The electric energy wrapped around the still struggling Elsa's throat. Everyone in the courtyard froze faster than Elsa's ice could have stopped them.

Unfortunately, the castle walls were too thick for Ana to hear the threat as she raced down the main hall past the portraits she'd befriended. She rushed out of the castle trailed by several confused attendants. "Elsa!" She screamed. "Unhand her!" Ana chucked a rock at the man, who flung it back at her with his magic. Dodging it she skated on the ice in her slippers with skill only acquired by those who spend their childhood in the far North.

"Well, since none of you seem to be able to hear me, I'll take my leave." Before Ana could reach him, the man took a blue hand mirror with a rose engraved in it out of his robe. He lifted it high above his head then threw it down shattering it into seven large pieces and an array of shards. "Mirror mirror on the wall, which one of you shall live, which one of you shall fall?" He laughed, pulled his cloak around him, and transformed back into an energy sphere with Elsa inside. The sphere flew high in the sky and away toward the mountains.

Continued Next Week...