Slight sensuality to come. Fair warning.

Chapter Fifteen: The Art of Shapeshifting

As Kristoff approached the door to his room that he shared with Anna (or more accurately, that she shared with him), he reflected on what had happened since Elsa's return.

After finding out that Elsa hadn't been sighted in the castle since that morning, Anna had been frantic all afternoon. It had only been as evening came that the queen and her companion had returned from the mountains. Anna had been at first relieved, and then had sensed the coexisting comfort and faint tension between the two. That in itself had fully calmed her down.

The four had had dinner together, and Elsa had explained what they had experienced up in the mountains. As she recounted their almost-kiss, Anna had been furious at Alphonse for refusing to kiss her "awesome, brilliant, irresistible queen of a big sister". Alphonse, apparently unfazed, had explained why he hadn't, and in no part due to a lack of willingness.

Both Anna and Kristoff had listened with rapt attention as Alphonse finally told his own story. After he had finished, voice hoarse from holding back emotion, Anna had literally been crying as she rushed over to hug the man. Even Kristoff himself, usually uncomfortable with contact that wasn't from Anna or the trolls, had chosen to try and comfort the mage.

After the story, Anna had left to "take care of something", leaving Kristoff to explain what they had been doing all day. Elsa had smiled widely at Kristoff's regaling of Anna's powers, while Alphonse had been pleased with Kristoff's own progress. He had explained that, from now on, they would need to teach themselves, to practice and learn the extent and limits of their newfound abilities.

Kristoff sighed as he approached their door, just a little worried about Anna. She had left fairly quickly, and he was concerned that she might be sick. He opened the door to a pitch-black room and shrugged. She must be somewhere else. Kristoff closed the door, more than content to navigate in the dark, and began to undress. As he removed his vest and shirt, candles placed around the room flared to life with a comforting glow. Kristoff whirled around and his mouth fell open.

Anna sat languidly on their bed, dressed in a low cut nightgown and a coy smile on her lips. She smoothly rose and approached to placed a hand on Kristoff's chest and the other cupping the side of his face. Kristoff stared dumbly, entranced by the look in his wife's eyes. Gone was the soft twinkle of sweet innocence he usually saw. In its place was a burning, consuming glimmer.

Anna clutched the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss, deep and passionate and hungry. She leapt up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and gripped his shoulders with vice-like strength, her kiss never wavering. If anything, it grew stronger.

Kristoff stumbled onto their bed and, without time to find his bearings, yelped as he was suddenly flipped onto his back, Anna leering down at him with a glint in her eyes that made him blush from the roots of his hair to the bottom of his chest. She caressed his cheek with the backs of her fingers and chuckled, deep and husky.

"Hey, Kristoff. Whatcha thinking about?" she asked, as if she didn't already know. The mountaineer couldn't bring himself to answer and simply stared openmouthed at her. This made her giggle again and she dove in for more kisses, her hands roaming across his chest.

Was this a dream? Kristoff wondered, before he was pulled into a haze of instinct.

Alphonse, ever the early riser, sat at the breakfast table with a book on herbal medicine in one hand and a fork in the other. His eyes never left the book as he neatly cut and ate his beef and eggs, mentally correcting errors in the book and resolving to write his own using knowledge from both himself and any local medicine women he could find in town.

Alphonse glanced up at the sound of Kristoff approaching the table before returning to his book. And then making a double-take at the sight of the ice harvester. The man seemed fine at first glance, but Alphonse knew the look of a man who had only had enough sleep to barely think clearly. He himself had spent years in a near-constant such-state.

Kristoff dropped into his chair with a sigh and began serving himself. "Is everything alright?"Alphonse asked. Kristoff looked up and seemed to consider his answer slowly (or perhaps that was the tiredness).

"Yes and no?" Kristoff answered tentatively. Alphonse raised an eyebrow in question, and Kristoff sighed. He began to describe what had happened last night, trying to get his point across without getting too detailed. And not just the first round, but the second, the third, the fourth (things got hazy after that). "Even after we … finished, she was, like, frisky. Caressing, kissing, just …" He shivered and tried to continue.

It helped a little that Alphonse didn't change his expression through any of his explanation, simply absorbing the story with passive interest. It was only after Kristoff trailed off, unable to finish, that Alphonse broke out a wide half-grin.

"Your wife wanted to go all night and you're actually complaining?" he asked. Kristoff scowled and dug into his eggs. Alphonse chuckled and apologized, simply wanting to get the humor out of his system.

"You're right, Kristoff," he assured, "this isn't entirely natural." Kristoff's eyes widened at the observation. He hadn't even voiced that thought and the mage had guessed it anyway.

"What do you know of Freya's aspects?" Alphonse asked. Kristoff thought it over and shrugged. In all honesty, he wasn't very familiar with the old stories. Alphonse took it in stride and prepared to give one of his now-famous lectures.

"Freya was a goddess of many things. A few of the lesser-known aspects were magic, gold, war, and death." Kristoff nodded, a little paler than before at the words war and death. "The better-known aspects," the mage continued, "were fertility, love, beauty … and feminine sexuality." He kept his gaze level, and was rewarded by a light of understanding in the ice harvester's eyes.

"I think," he continued, "that this 'incident' is a result of Anna's fusing with Freya, taking on some of her aspects. Freya, in her time, was quite … open with her desires." He paused to try and let that sink in. "She was once accused by Loki of having slept with every god, dwarf, and elf in the Nine Realms, and he probably wasn't very far off.

"Anna, however, is not like that. She is devoted to you, Kristoff, heart, body, and soul. But merging with Freya has brought out that aspect of her own self, Freya's strong libido. And, for good or for bad, she's going to focus that on you, her beloved husband." Kristoff looked away and thought all of this over. In the end, he couldn't decide whether to grin or to grimace with fear. He was a man, but he needed sleep, as well.

"If you like, I think I know a way to help moderate her new 'desires'," Alphonse offered. Kristoff actually stood from his seat, hands resting heavily on the table, to glare at him, and Alphonse lifted his hands in innocence. "Not like that," he assured, both adamant and a little angry. "Get your mind out of the gutter, no matter how long it's been there." He grinned at that last bit. "I think teaching her more magic will help moderate her 'urges'."

Before Kristoff could reply, Anna herself strutted into the room, practically glowing with innocent love. She hugged Kristoff from behind and kissed his cheek with a giggle, all traces of the vixen from the night before faded away. "Morning, honey!" she chirped and plopped down for breakfast.

For someone as not-a-morning-person as Anna, this was a relative shock.

As if on cue, Elsa strode in, pausing in surprise to find Anna having breakfast this early. "Well, someone seems happy," the queen commented. She glanced at Alphonse as he snickered, curious as to what she had missed. She noticed Kristoff's tiredness, as well. "Kristoff, are you okay?" A louder chuckle from Alphonse, badly disguised as a cough, made her even more curious.

"What happened?" she asked, tone both calm and uncompromising. Alphonse glanced at Kristoff, who was glowering at him like a poked bear.

"I think that's something for our dear prince-consort to explain," he said, smile just-too-innocent. Kristoff actually growled and fixed Alphonse with a look that, if such things could kill, would have struck him dead on the spot. Alphonse just continued smiling.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," Kristoff muttered. Alphonse actually barked a laugh and Elsa blushed at his phrasing. Anna swallowed thickly and took her husband's hand in her own, threading their fingers.

"I'm sorry, Kristoff," she said. Kristoff turned to face her, a look of near-horror on his face.

"No, Anna, don't be! I-" he hesitated, "-I liked it, I did, I just-" He cut off again, as if unsure how to continue. "It, uh, just caught me by surprise, is all," he explained. That was close enough to the truth right? Poorly concealed laughter from a certain sorcerer didn't reassure him. Even Elsa was hiding a smile behind her hand.

After a few minutes, Alphonse sobered up and explained his theory about last night's "events", before offering a saving throw. "Did you learn shapeshifting from Freya?" he asked, genuinely interested. Anna shook her head, prompting Alphonse to smile. "Want to learn?"

Anna was quiet for a solid thirty seconds before squealing with joy.

"I'll take that as a yes," Alphonse muttered. Elsa giggled at his comment, bringing a slight pinkness to the mage's cheeks. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Alphonse was bodily yanked from his chair by the arm and dragged down the hallways by his new student. He had barely gotten his balance back (three hallways later) when she changed direction and dragged him back to the dining room.

"Elsa, come and watch! I'm gonna learn to shapeshift!" the princess shouted, as if her sister hadn't been there when Alphonse offered. Elsa gave a rueful smile.

"I can't, Anna. After yesterday, I have too much work to catch up on." One could literally hear the borderline-sorrow in the queen's voice. Anna pouted, but her eyes held sadness as well.

"Okay, but I'm showing you what I can do tonight!" With that poor excuse for a warning, She grabbed Alphonse's arm again and resumed her running. Alphonse grimaced as Kristoff laughed at the scene. Why did karma always have to bite him back so soon?

In the woods close to the fjord, Alphonse tossed his cloak onto a boulder and set down his staff, his Anna-dubbed "teacher mode" taking over. He turned and faced the princess, who was all-but vibrating with excitement.

"As I'm sure you've learned by now, magic is about more than reading dusty old book in tall towers," he said with a grin. "It's about feeling what you want to do, and then doing it." Alphonse, with efficiency born of years of practice, Shifted into his wolf form. "In no other way is this demonstrated better than changing your shape." He Shifted back into human form with a grin and gestured to Anna.

"Give it a shot. Try something small." Anna smirked at the implied challenge and opened herself up to magic, bringing herself into the flow of the universe. She thought briefly about what to be and decided on a cat. Cats had been sacred to Freya, so why not try something kinda-sorta familiar? She focused on the shape of a red cat, built up her magic like a river behind a dam, and let it go!

Anna felt her whole body warp, like being caught in a crazy river current, and fell, landing in the grass with a heavy grunt. Anna shook her head and looked up to see Alphonse looming over her with a raised eyebrow. Wait, why was he so big? Sure, he was supposed to be, she was a cat, after all, but was he really supposed to be that big? Hang on …

"I honestly didn't expect your first shape to be that small," the mage commented. Anna looked herself over and gave a high-pitched (very high-pitched) shriek. She was a rat! A rat! "You're a mouse, princess," Alphonse grinned, "not a rat. You're even smaller than a rat." Okay, a mouse. Better than a rat, but still way off!

Alphonse knelt down, his skin seeming to glow for a split-second with red and silver and a little blue, and flicked her. Anna spun and felt pins-and-needles shoot through her body before she flopped over, back to her normal self. She looked over at Alphonse with shock.

"You can shapeshift other people?" she asked. Alphonse tapped the side of his nose and stood. It was time to start practice.

Montage

Alphonse took a breath, his arms spread wide, and Shifted into a wolf, then glanced at Anna. Anna copied his motions and took a deep breath. And Shifted into a mouse again. Wolf-Alphonse whined and placed a paw on his muzzle, before Shifting back into a man - his fingers squeezing the bridge of his nose.

(-)

Anna followed Alphonse as he ran through the woods. The mage ran along a boulder and leapt off at full speed, Shifting into an eagle. Anna fixed a hawk, one of Freya's favorite forms, into her head and leapt off. Then she fell and landed face-first in the grass. Eagle-Alphonse landed on a tree branch, screeching, and Shifted back to laugh at his student. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help himself.

Alphonse cried out as a rock hit him in the forehead and fell from the tree with a thump. He leapt to his feet and glared at Anna with a thunderous look. Anna paled, suddenly regretting her impulsive action.

(-)

Anna screamed as Wolf-Alphonse chased her, baying like a hunting dog. Adrenaline surged within her and she instinctively reached for her magic. She felt something rise inside her and let it carry her, her body Shifting with an audible snap!

Anna, now a cat, ran up a tree and hissed at the wolf chasing her. Alphonse barked at her and Shifted into a huge snake to climb up the tree. Anna screeched and leapt from her perch. Without thought, she Shifted again, into a red-feathered falcon, and flew as fast as she could.

It took a few moments, and several hundred feet of altitude, to realize what she had done, and Anna forced herself back to human shape with a cry of exhilaration. She fell, and fell, and fell, adrenaline pumping through her system. As the ground approached, she Shifted back into a falcon (no wonder Freya had liked it so much!) and swooped over the grass before landing and changing back.

(-)

Wolf-Alphonse ran, yelping like a whipped dog, as Anna chased him down in the shape of a huge black cat. She had read stories about Big Cats from Africa and Asia, and even heard legends of giant black cats as close as Finland; seemed like great justice.

Alphonse Shifted back and turned, snapping his fingers. Anna felt the pins-and-needles again and was Shifted into her old self. Alphonse glared at her and she tried to look as guilty and repentant as possible.

The mage grinned and headed back, leaving Anna to follow.

Elsa sighed as she read yet-another letter-of-proposal from yet-another small kingdom in the name of their available prince. This had happened quite frequently over the last two years; numerous small kingdoms, having heard of the Eternal Winter and Elsa's powers that caused it, sought to "unify their kingdoms". In other words, they wanted to get their son on the throne and have Elsa's powers as a trump card to protect what relatively little sovereign land they had.

This one had even appealed as a "fellow" small kingdom. Arendelle was actually quite large compared to these kingdoms, who had been carved out of larger sovereign nations that fell apart to rebellion or war or famine.

Elsa huffed and, in a rare fit of outward impatience, crumpled the letter into a ball and tossed it into the lit fireplace. Her frustration seemed to burn along with the parchment, and she felt lighter. With a small smile, she wrote a note for one of her scribes to find a copy of her standard refusal and alter it to suit said small kingdom. After so many times, she had settled on a single, formulaic, easily-reproduced copy to be sent.

A soft tapping at her balcony door brought her out of the haze of boredom that came with too-large amounts of paperwork and she turned to look. Anna waved at her through the thick-glass doors and Elsa rose to open them. "Anna? How did you get up here?" she asked, both curious and a little reprimanding. It was quite a distance to climb, after all.

"Oh, you know," Anna answered off-handedly as she backed away, a roguish grin on her lips. The princess's waist hit the balcony and she fell back with a shriek. Elsa screamed and rushed to look for her sister, only to be knocked back by a blast of air as something soared past her and up. A large red falcon hovered some distance away.

"Isn't this amazing?!" the raptor shouted in Anna's voice. Elsa stared, open-mouthed, at the falcon, at her sister. Clearly, Alphonse had taught her well. She got over her surprise and scowled.

"You almost scared me to death!" the queen shouted, her anger burning hot but quickly cooling. She realized, now, that Anna hadn't been in any danger, but it was still a mean thing to do. Falcon-Anna fluttered down and Shifted back, like water flowing, with a guilty look.

"Sorry, Els-" The princess broke off with a surprised shout as a giant snowball fell on her, dousing her in icy revenge. Elsa grinned widely and quickly conjured an ice-hawk, leaping off the balcony to settle on the back of the faux-bird.

"Bet you can't beat my hawk," Elsa dared, before clicking her tongue and sending the hawk, and her, flying away. Anna stared for a moment before grinning and jumping off to Shift back. It was so on!

Alphonse, perched on the roof of the castle's highest tower, watched as the royal sisters flew towards the North Mountain, their sisterly competitiveness warming his heart. He wished, for just a moment, that he could have experienced that with his own sisters. And while the thought brought as pang of grief, the pain was far less than it would have been even a day ago.

Alphonse sighed in contentment. It was here, at this castle, and among this family that he had felt something he had thought he would never have again. He felt at home, among something like family.

As he thought these things, the wind shifted, and he caught a strange scent in the air. As with all experienced shapeshifters, Alphonse had picked up traits of his favored forms that stuck even in human shape, such as a wolf's enhanced sense of smell. Alphonse sniffed, catching the smell just a little more strongly, and wondered. The scent was familiar - where had he smelled it before?

Realization hit like a battering ram as he recalled an encounter with a pack of very specific creatures, three years previous.

Alphonse, in the shape of a wolf, growled at the corpse of a grown man, his chest ripped to shreds and left on the side of the road. He sniffed at the dead man, ignoring the scents of blood and death, and focused on a musky smell. He snarled as he caught the scent and began his pursuit.

It took hours of running, but he found the culprit. A young woman, dressed in a form-fitting robe, sat amongst a pack of wolves, her face covered in pink stains. Alphonse Shifted and slammed the butt of his staff into the dirt, a look of sheer fury marring his features.

"I challenge you leader of this pack, daughter of Fenris, freed of pain. Come forth and face justice for the lives you have taken!" Alphonse was aware that the leader was not responsible for the murder. That would be the woman in their group, the youngest who had taken her final initiation into the pack, into their twisted form of womanhood. But the leader was responsible for the deeds of her pack, and there were rules. Rules that even he had to follow.

From within the pack of fourteen, counting the woman, came a white wolf, larger than the rest. The wolf Shifted with audible snaps and pops into the form of a woman at the peak of her life, eyes heavily lidded and filled with fury. A crude marking was burned into her cheek.

"You have no right to challenge me, Oath-breaker," the leader growled. "You trapped our patron with your deception and left him to rot. You have no standing with us." The wolves all growled and snarled in agreement before they-too Shifted into human forms.

Alphonse stood firm and locked eyes with the pack leader. "That was Odin, she-wolf, not me. I am Alphonse, and I claim the right of challenge. Face me on level ground, and earn redemption!" Alphonse tossed his staff aside and Shifted back into a wolf to howl in challenge.

The leader growled and Shifted as well. They circled each other, snarling and snapping, the pack forming a circle around them. With unspoken agreement, they charged each other-

Alphonse hissed as a scratch across his ribs twinged at the memory. The fight had been frantic and feral, a true match against animals, but in the end he had won. He had left the pack with a dead leader, left them to scatter in grief and confusion. Many of them, he would later find, had wasted away without a figure to guide them. Others had formed packs of their own, and he had cursed himself for leaving them alive.

Alphonse sniffed again and picked up a second scent, one even less welcome than the she-wolves. It smelled of tainted woodsmoke and burning leaves, of violent stormclouds and acidic venom. Of death and madness. It was the scent of the new Loki, of Prince Hans, of whatever unholy entity they had become.

Alphonse leapt off the roof and, using a bare hunt of magic, floated to one of the balconies. He had to find Kristoff, they had to move. He had know way of knowing, and yet he did. The Maras, the she-wolves, would attack Elsa and Anna.

Anna pumped her wings, almost desperate to win the race with Elsa. The Ice Palace was in sight and rapidly growing. She closed her wings and fell through the air, picking up speed. The Palace was almost there! At the very last moment, Anna pulled up and shifted to land in the snow. With style, she reached out and almost-delicately touched the staircase with her finger. Not a split second later, Elsa's hawk landed and dissolved into icy mist.

Elsa, though not happy about losing, laughed along with her sister. The duo embraced in a hug, their mirth fading to contentment. It was joyous to be able to do things like this: to race, to laugh, to hug each other. The wounds of the past, and the scars they had left, were slowly healing.

The sisters' mirth stopped dead in its tracks at an unexpected sound: clapping. Both women turned to find an unwelcome figure some distance away, slowly clapping with a sneer on his scarred lips. Hans grinned at their twin glares, at the frost rising over Elsa's palms.

"I had missed that," he said in the higher voice of Loki, "watching Freya show her stuff. Although," he paused as if in thought, hand on his chin, "Freya tended to show other things, and not just to men, either." He sneered at the last part and cackled madly, his eyes drifted slightly … lower.

Anna, face burning, covered her torso with her arms, suddenly embarrassed. Elsa stepped in front of her, icy armor spreading over her body. The Snow Queen blinked as distorted images flashed across her field of vision, but she pushed them away to focus on Hans.

"Leave, Trickster," she ordered firmly, "or die here." Die? Where had that come from? Elsa may loathe the prince-turned-Residuum, some might say despise, but she was no killer (no matter what her enemies claimed).

Hans chuckled, his voice deep again, and shook his finger, as if teaching a child. "You really think I would come to fight both of you alone?" he asked, as if it were the most foolish thing they could think. He snapped his fingers and the sisters heard growling. Shapes emerged from behind trees and rocks, revealing large wolves. And the wolves, in turn, Shifted into a group of women, armed with knives of rock and bone, and their razor-sharp nails.

"I miss my son," Hans said, back to Loki, "he was such a bright pup. Clever, even in his arrogance. It was the arrogance that had him bound, but he learned his lesson, and he was still clever. He found women who were fed up with being treated like servants by their husbands, forced to endure agony for their children. And using the magic that I taught him, he made them a deal.

"These women would be free from the pain of childbirth, free form the abuse and spite of men. They would be free, even if he could not be. They would be free and strong and take control of their own selves. And with that powerful exchange, the Maras were born. And even now, after the destruction of the world, they still roam free, ready to take revenge for the sake of their patron."

Hans/Loki looked to his side, at the leader who bore the mark. "Hati, would you care to do the honors?" he asked. Hati grinned, nothing but maliciousness in the expression.

"Sisters," she called, some of the pack turning back to wolves while the rest remained, "we hunt!" And the pack surged forward with a mindless howl.

For mythology buffs, I acknowledge that the Maras, a real figment of Scandinavian folklore, are not connected to Fenris in the lore. I just thought it would be really cool (and give Hans/Loki a way to command them). Also, the "montage" was inspired by the new Disney film "Moana" (those who have see it will get it). Hope it was funny.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave a review if you liked it or have a question (or complaint, but please no flames). Thanks, guys/gals.