Chapter 24

"You shouldn't rush off on your own. A storm is coming in. If my hunch is right and it's your sister's storm, you getting hurt out here will only hurt her more." I turned to meet the face of the tall, blonde mountain man standing by the door.

"Who are you to tell me where to go?" I asked, anger steaming from my ears.

"Kristoff, nice to meet you, I've seen the effects of your sister's storms up close and personal and I would rather not have you killed and cause another one." I shook my head, trying to shake the image of all the people who suffered the storms when our parents died.

"I'm not staying in that house with him when he's the reason she's hurting now." Kristoff's face went blank. No one explained what happened.

"Jackson loved Elsa more than his own life, and Nikolai, despite knowing this and having been friends with Elsa when they were children, he refused to stand up to his father's bullying of Arendelle and destroyed their relationship. Jackson was out here because he saw the ring. He felt betrayed Elsa didn't talk to him about it more, but she didn't have a choice." If it were possible, steam would be pouring out his ears in fury.

"He killed Jackson?" He spoke through clenched teeth, his fists balled white by his side. I knew when someone was about to launch into a rage.

"Hey, he didn't do it directly. He didn't put Jackson on that ice." My hand rested on his arm, grounding him before he flipped out.

"I can't be here." Kristoff stalked off into the storm, heading along the forest line.

"You just finished telling me to stay out of the storm." I called after him, following his footprints in the snow.

"Because I don't want your sister to loose control if you get killed. I'll survive." I groaned, trying to catch up against the wind.

"Where are you going?" I called to his back. He didn't respond. I ran forward and grabbed his coat. "Where are you going?" I repeated with a newfound sternness.

"I am not standing in that house with three girls who think they're the only ones to feel Jackson's death to their very core and the man who essentially pushed my best friend into the ice. I am going to grieve my best friend the only way I know how." He turned to stalk off again, but with little more than a tug on his arm he turned back to me, the glittering of tears brimming in his eyes.

"How is that?" He took a moment to run his arm across his eyes before he responded,

"I am going to go and get my friend's body from the water and I am going to give him a proper burial. Like he deserves." I followed Kristoff in silence, still not knowing who he was, but knowing he was hurting and needed someone there. I followed him back to his small shack of a house where he ducked inside and fetched some tools, swinging a coil of rope over his shoulder before heading back out into the forest, following the path back to the lake. I could see his face as we walked, like it was chiselled from stone; unmoving and cold. Before long Kristoff stood at the side of the ice and stared through it to the body of his best friend below.

"Why would he bring her here so soon after the lake froze over? He knows this lake. I always told him, year after year, wait until you can't see the reeds before you skate." I looked across the edge of the frozen water and saw the heads of reeds still visible under the snow. Without warning the man dropped his sack of tools and the coil from his shoulder and fell to his knees. "Why couldn't he just LOOK?" He screamed to the treetops, unsettling a couple of birds. His fist came out from under his chest and pounded with all his might at the ice at the lake's edge, again and again until cracks started to show.

I couldn't move. Within seconds this mountain of a man just went from stoic to broken and angry.

"Twenty two years of being best friends – BROTHERS – and he goes and does this. Did he even THINK for ONE SECOND before getting on the ice?" Another thud echoed off the trees and the crack in the ice spread. This broken mountain of a man continued to writhe and scream for as long as his voice could take it. When no more words could break free of his throat and nothing remained but soft sobs of pain, I knelt next to him. I opened my mouth to try and say something to comfort him, but nothing made it past the tip of my tongue.

"I'm sorry." I knew that was nowhere near what he needed to hear, and I know from experience, but it was all that my mind would allow me to say. I think Kristoff understood that.

"He should have at least checked before Mary got on. How could he risk her life like that? How am I supposed to look that little girl in the eye knowing she's alive while Jackson isn't?" I could hear the hint of silent sobs between his words, despite his face facing away from me. My hand rested on the small of his back as his clenched fists dug into the ice and split the skin covering his knuckles.

"You remember she's alive because of the man Jackson was, don't think about him sacrificing his own life for hers, remember he tried to save her because he was a good person. Then forget how he died all together and just remember him. When you can look at Mary and see nothing in your minds eye but your favourite memories of her brother, you know you've survived your grief." I tried my best not to remember when we received news my parents had passed and I experienced this same terrible darkness I thought I could never escape. "Don't sour his memory now by risking your life to pull him back up." The shaking from holding back tears stopped and Kristoff straightened, getting to his feet. He reached into his sack of tools and pulled out a heavy axe. I took a cautious step back and he walked straight by me to the nearest tree and drew the blade over his shoulder before bring it down heavily and making a horizontal cut in the trunk, though not nearly enough to cause the wood to break. He swung again; a vertical line was cut beneath the horizontal this time. He put the axe down, but pulled out a hammer and a flat blade with a short handle, like a butchers knife, and used it to complete what became the letter 'J'. He put away his tools and turned back to the lake his best friend lay at the bottom of.

"I know you never told me out loud, but I know how much you love Elsa, and I know how desperately you want her protected. I can't promise anything, but I'll try. I will not leave her for a moment, and I will not let this Kingdom fall to ruins, until she can stand up and move past her grief." With a salute to the lake, Kristoff brought his rope and tools back over his shoulder and marched back out of the trees.

(Anna POV End. Anna POV will resume in a couple of chapters [I have no idea when tbh, keep your eyes peeled though])