AN: Thanks for the follows/faves. Makes me a happy girl. P.S. I don't own Frozen or any of that jazz, as I'm sure you're well aware! ;) Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter, it was just the place that worked to end it. XO

The kingdom reacted favorably to the news, as both King and Queen knew would be the case. For obvious reasons, they did not disclose the magical nature of the conception nor the fact that the child would have magical powers. They didn't even fully understand it themselves, so how could they expect everyone else to come to terms with it?

The next few months passed by, slowly for Queen Iduna and rapidly for King Agnarr. The summer months were always busy for the royal family — lots of trading, visiting dignitaries and the like. Queen Iduna learned her body's signs and was sometimes able to foresee a temperature fluctuation before it happened and retreat to her chambers so as not to alarm any guests when she suddenly turned pale and shivered violently.

One such occasion happened in mid-August, when the Queen was about five months into the pregnancy. Her lips had suddenly become tingly during a stroll through the gardens with the Coronan ambassador, and she had quickly excused herself. No sooner had she shut herself into her chambers than her lips turned blue and her whole body wracked with shivers. Teeth chattering, she climbed under her covers and waited.

The child within her thrashed powerfully during these episodes, and this one was no exception. Queen Iduna laid her hand on her belly and spoke soothingly to the baby inside. "Shh, love," she crooned. "I know these episodes are unpleasant for you, too. It's almost over now, see? It's already subsiding." As feeling came back into her extremities and the violent shivering slowed, the baby's movements also calmed. "There, now," Iduna smiled. "It's over. We're okay."

Climbing out of bed, the Queen approached the window. She looked out over the castle grounds. "All of this will be yours one day." The baby gave a soft kick as though acknowledging her mother's words. "I don't know what trials and tribulations your life will hold, my darling, but I know for sure that as long as I'm living, you won't want for love."

Tears brimmed in the Queen's eyes.

"I can't promise you much," she whispered, lovingly caressing her belly. "But love? I can promise you love."

It was early on a Wednesday morning in the first week of October, and the King and Queen of Arendelle were alone in the royal study. King Agnarr rested his elbow on the arm of his high-backed chair, massaging his right temple while flipping through pages in a book with his free hand.

Across the room, Iduna was curled up (as much as one can curl with a belly in the way) on the light green sofa, also flipping through a book. She spoke suddenly, her voice contemplative. "What shall we name the child?"

"Beg pardon?" Agnarr looked up from his work.

"What shall we name the child, Agnarr?" Iduna closed her book and set it aside, turning gentle eyes to her husband. "We have only about two months until she's born. She's going to need a name."

Agnarr stared off to his left, gazing out the window into the foggy fall morning. Arendelle was one of the lucky places that got all four seasons, and fall was one of King Agnarr's favorites. "And we know for sure it will be a girl?"

"Yes. The witch said it will be a girl."

"Should we go with a family name? The tradition has long been to name the firstborn after the King's family."

The Queen nodded quietly. "I suppose we should. Does it have to be one of your parents' names?"

"I don't think so," Agnarr frowned. "Not necessarily. I think it just has to be a family name." He gave a short laugh. "I don't know! I've not looked up the rules!"

Iduna laughed lightly. "Well, I think you'd remember if it were set in stone. Who are you named after?"

"An uncle, I think."

The Queen placed a hand on her swollen belly as she felt the tiny child inside give a particularly sharp kick. "Then it stands to reason that it doesn't have to be the name of one of your parents — in this case, your mother."

Both monarchs were quiet for several minutes, mulling over their task. Naming a person was a big deal no matter which way one looked at it. It was the name everyone who ever came into contact with the person would know them by; it would ring out through households and streets, be heralded and spoken lovingly, one could only hope. In the case of Agnarr and Iduna, it was even more nerve-wracking, knowing that this child would grow up to be Queen of Arendelle one day and the entire kingdom would know and speak her name.

Agnarr's mother's name had been Audhild. It wasn't a name Iduna much cared for, although she had liked the late queen very much. When she learned from the old witch that the child she would bear would be a girl, Iduna had feared that they would have to name her after Agnarr's mother, so she was very much relieved to find out that this wasn't necessarily the case. If Agnarr had insisted upon it, Iduna would have acquiesced. It didn't seem, however, that he was leaning that direction.

Iduna tried to think back to any of Agnarr's other female family members that she had either met or heard of. He'd had a cousin who had ended up being the Duchess of someplace-or-other (Iduna couldn't remember exactly). Her name also escaped Iduna, although she seemed to remember it being something like Astrid or Astra. Aside from her and of course Agnarr's aunt, Princess Tyri, who was infamous in Iduna's mind for having narcolepsy, there wasn't anyone else coming to mind.

King Agnarr had been thoughtfully stroking his mustache, staring into space for several seconds. Suddenly, he burst into action, striding purposefully across the room to the large bookshelf that took up one entire wall. He climbed a small ladder, removed several books and reached far back into the depths of the shelf.

"What are you looking for?" The Queen asked as her husband rummaged around, elbow deep in the recesses of the shelving unit.

The King didn't answer. After a moment, he pulled out what appeared to be a small, leather bound journal. Not moving from his position on the fourth step of the ladder, he unwound the thin strap holding the book closed. A puff of dust plumed up from within the book when he opened it, making stately King Agnarr twitch his nose to hold in a sneeze.

Iduna held in a titter, remaining quiet as she waited for an explanation.

After several silent moments, Agnarr's facial features softened and his mouth pulled into a smile beneath his reddish-blonde mustache. His eyes darted back and forth as he read several lines.

"So," King Agnarr said at last, "I've never mentioned this to you, but we aren't the first royal couple to have fertility problems." Agnarr closed the book with a thwap! and tucked it under his arm, descending the ladder one rung at a time. He crossed the room and sat down beside his wife. "My grandparents had several failed pregnancies before my grandmother managed to carry a baby to term. My father, who remembers being told by his nanny, said that everything had been going fine, until one day just before the baby was to be born, my grandmother felt the baby stop kicking."

Iduna gasped, instinctively laying her hands protectively across her belly. She felt their child give several reassuring kicks to the palms of her hands.

"The child was stillborn a week later." Agnarr blinked sadly. "It was a little girl, the nanny said, and she was beautiful. My grandmother could hardly part with the child, and she sobbed for weeks afterwards. They all loved her so, but the nanny said she was just too perfect for this world."

It took Queen Iduna several seconds to find her voice, and when she did, it was unsteady. She licked her dry lips and, pressing her hand to the spot where their daughter was jabbing repeatedly under her skin, asked the question: "Wh-what was her name?"

The King smoothed his hand over the journal, leaving a handprint in the dust.

"Elsa."

As the weeks passed by, the unborn child grew rapidly and as a result, the queen's belly became more and more distended. The child's kicks grew stronger and more powerful, as did the early winter storms that came to Arendelle.

Everyone except for the king and queen shrugged it off as an unusually early start to winter. Mother Nature was just full of surprises and it wasn't the first time they'd had snow dumped on them before the first of November.

But the royal pair knew better. This was no ordinary early winter — this was magic.

The queen was prone to sudden dizzy spells, temperature fluctuations and mood swings, not unlike early pregnancy. But this time, when she would have an episode, the outside weather would react. One Thursday morning, Iduna shook so violently with cold, crying out in pain and lips and fingertips blue, that by the time her body returned to homeostasis, a foot of snow had fallen on the kingdom. Another time, the mild-mannered queen got so uncharacteristically angry over the wrong kind of biscuits being served with her tea that the winds howled for nearly an hour, snapping shutters off houses in the village and damaging ships in the harbor.

King Agnarr feared for the safety of his wife and his kingdom but most of all, his child. Over the past several months he had grown rather fond of the little thing wiggling and kicking away in his wife's belly. The little girl seemed to react to his voice when he'd put his face up close to the queen's belly and speak. Little flutters and jabs would follow his hand when he'd press on different places, almost as though she were chasing him. It warmed his heart in a way he hadn't known was possible.

What were these spells doing to the little princess growing within his beloved wife? Was she all right? The palace doctor had eventually been let in on the secret, and he was the first to admit he'd never tended to a magical pregnancy before in all his years of medicine. All he could do was try to make sure both mother and child were as healthy as could be in any way he could.

"The baby is kicking soundly," Doctor Larsen told King Agnarr on the seventh of November, his hand that was pressed against the side of Queen Iduna's belly visibly jumping as the child proved his point for him. "From what I can tell, all seems to be well at this time. The Queen's pulse is strong, not thready, and her respirations are normal. Her temperature is also normal, although I'm not sure how long that will last. Her episodes are getting more frequent the closer she gets to delivery."

Agnarr sighed. "That's as good a report as I could hope for at the moment." The King glanced out the window, noting that the weather was calm. He hoped this meant that his dear wife would have some respite from episodes for at least the rest of the morning if not the whole day. "Thank you, Doctor."

After the kindly physician took his leave, Queen Iduna sat up on the couch she'd been reclining on. "How are you doing, my love?" She asked her husband.

King Agnarr lowered himself down beside his wife. He took her small, soft hand in his big, warm one. "Despite my worry and trepidation, I am well. Excited, even." A childlike sparkle appeared in Agnarr's eyes. "Whom do you think the child will resemble?"

The Queen gazed lovingly at her handsome husband. "I don't care about looks. She could look like you and I'd be happy, or she could look like me and I'd be equally as happy. What I care about is what's in here," Iduna tapped her temple, "and in here," and her heart.

"I want her to have your steadfastness and maybe a touch of your stubbornness. I want her to have my patience, because I have more of it than you," Iduna teased, laughing quietly. "But I want her to have your perseverance."

The King laid his hand gently over his wife's where it rested atop their child who would be born in just over a month. "I want her to love her kingdom fiercely and for the kingdom to love her back," he whispered.

"She will, Agnarr. I know she will."

"How do you know that?"

Iduna bit her lip. "It was in the prophecy."

"What prophecy?"

"The one the old witch gave me. It said she'd rule the kingdom truly and fairly. The people will love a queen who is true and fair."

Agnarr nodded. "Yes, I suppose they will."

A beat passed.

"Did that prophecy say anything else about her?"

Iduna's mind whirled. Should she tell him? Should she keep it to herself? The prophecy never expressly stated whether or not the King of Arendelle would have to give his life along with the Queen of Arendelle. She could die in childbirth or by an illness, neither of which would necessarily involve her husband. She chewed on her lower lip for several seconds, debating. Finally, she said, "No. Nothing else about her as a queen. It did say she would have blue eyes, though, and that she would be lovely."

"Like her mother," Agnarr said, and leaned in to kiss his wife.