Disclaimer: Frozen is in property of Disney, therefore I do not own the rights.
Thank you to everyone who has read/favorite/alert/reviewed my story so far!
Warnings: Foul Language, OOC-ness, Background OCs, Cameo/Name Drops
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I'm starting to feel bad for Elsa. She really isn't sure how to handle the whole "Anna has fire powers" situation. I think her discomfort is starting to appear more prominently in this chapter. Anna is trying her damnedest not to let anyone's doubts to rub off on her.
Olaf is a hard character to write for. Why I keep insisting on writing him is beyond me.
Chapter Four
Neither of them had ever truly returned to the Ice Palace since its creation. Anna never felt the need to what with her sister back at the Castle and Elsa just never really found the time to in-between queenly duties.
She had forgotten the battle that had taken place; had never really talked about it in detail with Anna when all was done. But Anna never pressed her for answers, and when nightmares of that day crept up on them in the middle of the night, Elsa and Anna always retreated into each others rooms and stayed together until the first light of a new day. But now, being faced with the damage done to the stairway, Elsa remembered and Anna saw.
"Did Hans…?" Anna started, but trailed off.
Elsa shook her head. "I believe that was Marshmallow's doing."
Anna hummed thoughtfully. "He's not going to throw me out again is he?"
"Marshmallow? Nah!" Olaf said, hurrying along the frozen stairway despite the missing patch. "He's changed for the better, trust me Anna!"
They didn't ascent the stairs until Elsa had fixed the missing portion. And even then, Anna found that her hands were not quite cold enough to keep steam from rising every time she held the rail. She kept her hands close to her, preferring to play it safe than worry her sister. She hurried up the remaining steps, nearly slipping into Elsa at the very top.
The Queen steadied her with a hand on her arm, an amused smile gracing her lips despite the sheepish look on Anna's face.
The rest of the Ice Palace wasn't as badly damaged as the chandelier room had been. There were a few cracks here and there, but most of it came from Elsa's inner turmoil rather than the search party that had come for Anna. They found Marshmallow near the upper chambers wearing Elsa's discarded crown from the coronation. Anna broke into a fit of laughter at the sight, but after placating the snow creature that the crown looked perfectly alright atop his head, followed Elsa into the recently fixed Chandelier chamber.
"The ice on these walls are very thick and reinforced by my magic." She started, gesturing to the entirety of the room. "I think it'll withstand the intensity of your flame, Anna."
Anna scrutinized a nearby wall, eying her reflection. "Are you sure?" She frowned, glancing back at Elsa.
"Honestly? I'm not sure." The Queen admitted. "Your fire is… different, Anna. There's a good chance your magic can melt the whole palace."
"So why bring me here?"
"You need the solitude of the palace. There's a certain freedom you can only get from this place and I think that's what you need right now to exercise your control." Elsa suddenly smiled. "It also means you can let go. Should the palace start to melt then I'll just rebuild it again."
Anna gave her a tentative smile.
"I don't want to destroy your hideaway, sis."
Elsa picked up Anna's discarded bag of essentials, that small sweet smile still lingering on her lips. She turned back to the girl, slinking both bags over her shoulder with the ease of having done so before despite never truly living outside the castle before.
"Then you won't." She replied, before turning her back on Anna. "I'll go make us some rooms to sleep. Practice your breathing. Once you get that down, you can start playing around with the temperature." She gave her a playful smirk. "See if you can melt the walls. I'll be right back."
Anna waited until Elsa was out of sight before whirling in her boots. With childlike glee she hadn't felt since the appearance of her powers, she hurried to the center of the room, undid her braids and tied the sunset red locks into a high bun. She didn't worry about it burning since the manifestation of her powers seemed to have made her immune to such things, but she did find it much more appealing when her hair was away from her face during her practices. She found it much easier to cope with the heat when her curtain of hair wasn't brushing along the flesh of her neck.
She rolled the stiffness from her shoulders thanks to the arduous journey before starting on her breathing.
Each exhale she made released a puff of air she hadn't quite noticed until now. She didn't feel the crispy cold she knew the palace emitted. In fact, she felt rather comfortable within the main chamber. It was almost like the bitter cold of the outside balanced the raging heat she felt on the inside.
Another perk she added into her mental check list of why being a pyrokinetic was the best damn thing to ever happen to her.
She closed her eyes in concentration, focusing on every inhale and exhale she took of the fresh, clean air.
She really didn't need to focus on the heat. Her fire came easier the more times she used it, and thanks to all those late night super-secret extra lessons Anna did in the ballroom, she was more than able to summon her flames with barely a flick of her hand.
She still couldn't quite control it in the same way Elsa could with her ice. Small pillars of fire would sometimes turn into roaring funnels of inferno. The small designs she'd like to manipulate with her hands would sometimes spring out of her palms as though they had garnered a life of their own. The small bird she had conjured from flame had been one of the things that flew out of her control more often than not.
It had nearly burned one of the tapestries.
There was another time, a couple of nights ago, when Anna had managed to conjure blue flame.
It'd been so beautiful, so surprising, that Anna failed to notice one of the patrolling guards enter the ballroom. She'd extinguished the flame then, but never forgot the sight of it hovering just above her palms.
She had never seen anything like it.
Now, in the safe solitude of Elsa's Ice Palace, Anna wished to summon upon the blue flames once more. With a quick flick of her wrist, a small flame erupted from her palm, a tamed red-orange ball of fire.
She sighed in disappointment.
"I guess that time was just a fluke, huh?"
"What time was a fluke?" Olaf asked, waddling into the room. He suddenly gasped at the sight of Anna's fire and hurried to the princess with wide bright eyes. "Oh, Anna! Are you practicing with your magic? Can I watch? Can I please? I'll make sure to stay out of your way."
"Sure thing Olaf." She chuckled.
She waited until the small snowman was seated a good distance away from her before cupping the small flame with both hands.
"Are you ready?"
"Ready!" He called cheerily.
Anna willed the fire to grow in size. She pulled apart her hands until the shape of a bird entirely made of flames formed in the space between her palms. She threw the creature into the air and marveled with Olaf as the bird took flight all on its own. It soared around the room, its fiery feathers licking the surface of the ice walls until it shot up toward the ceiling with speed Anna didn't know the bird had.
"Hey! What are you doing?" She frowned, watching the fiery entity fly higher and higher. It looked like it was heading straight toward the ice chandelier. Anna's eyes suddenly widened in horror. "No, wait, stop! Don't—"
She frantically waved her in the hopes of extinguishing the fire creature. It did obey, only, the fire bird went out with a bang. Literally. The ethereal creature suddenly exploded beside the frozen chandelier. A small, but powerful wave smacked into the delicate frozen chain, its heavy weight rocking. A wave of heat from the blast melted through several layers of ice and, like all heavy things did when mixed with gravity, snapped from the ceiling a second time.
With a terrified cry from both occupants in the room, Anna and Olaf jumped out of the line of danger as the ice chandelier came hurdling to the frozen floor. It shattered on impact, sending shards of sharp ice every which way.
Elsa came hurrying into the room, panic written all over her face.
"Anna!" She cried, nearly stumbling over the wreckage to get to her sister. "Anna! Are you hurt? What happened?"
Anna winched, having hit her head at some point during the scramble. She rose to her feet with Elsa's help, but continued to rub the bump at the back of her head.
"I… broke your chandelier… sorry." She confessed after a few minutes of silence.
Elsa's eyes widened. "How?"
"With the coolest fire bird ever!" Olaf replied from somewhere on the other side of the room. "It was beautiful." He sighed, but sobered immediately at Elsa's expression.
Elsa turned back to Anna with an inquisitive frown.
"I made a bird out of fire Elsa." The girl grinned, although it fell short of being genuine due to the disapproval swimming in her sister's eyes. "But, um, I couldn't really control its flight path so, um, it kind of exploded right next to the chandelier—but don't worry because I'm, ok! Olaf's ok. Right Olaf?"
"Right Anna!"
Elsa eyed the fallen chandelier again before glancing back to her sheepish sister.
"Anna," She started, taking hold of the red head's warm hands. She stared into her sister's eyes for a moment, the curiosity, the worry and the embarrassment quite clear within Anna's blue eyes. In Elsa's wintery blue, Anna could see the heavy pools of concern; the disapproval. Fear.
Elsa closed her eyes in resignation. "I don't think you should make anything with your fire, anymore." Anna opened her mouth to protest, but Elsa pressed a finger against her lips. "Please, let me explain. You don't have the right control right now to do that Anna. What just happened is proof of that. If your magic is anything like mine then anything you try to make might come to life. I believe, until you have had more practice, you should just stick with the basics ok?"
Anna exhaled in displeasure, but nodded regardless. The two young women eyed the shattered mess of ice for a moment, neither one of them wanting to think what might have happened if Anna hadn't moved in time.
Sleep evaded the princess that night. Thoughts of flying fire birds and falling chandeliers rattled around in her brain, keeping away the exhaustion she knew her body held. Her thoughts were accompanied by Elsa's words, slipping in and out of her mind like an echo in a cave.
Some words were encouraging—words the Queen had given her during times Anna felt down, like when she and Kristoff had broken up, or when she felt insecure about her position as Princess of Arendelle.
Other words were instructive, most of them involved the times Elsa had taught her how to breathe, had told her that fire was a passionate element, that her emotions might make things worse. But then there were those times when Elsa had told her to stop trying to create; stop manipulating her magic like ice, because their elements weren't the same. They were polar opposites.
Fire couldn't create mass structures the same way Elsa's ice allowed her to create the Ice Palace. It couldn't make snowmen or snow creatures. It couldn't create barriers for protection or impromptu skating rinks for a time of fun. It couldn't preserve life the same way frost could.
Fire was ... different.
It was beautiful, yes, majestic even. Mesmerizing. Free. But it was wild; dangerous.
Destructive.
There was a certain beauty only Elsa could create with her magic. Anna had firsthand witnessed the fantastical display ice and snow could create, but fire…
Her fire was in a league of its very own and it was because of that Anna felt… disappointed… in her sister's reaction.
Her fire wasn't like the rest. Did Elsa not see that?
"Of course she doesn't," The girl whispered in the silent darkness of her icy bedroom. "But I can show her, I just need a chance."
A part of her wondered if the frustration she felt now was the same one Elsa felt when she had to keep her powers hidden from the world. It wasn't like her sister was demanding her to stop the practices all together. Anna understood that Elsa was just worried about the consequences like she always did. The fire bird incident really didn't help the argument either.
"I just need to go somewhere a little less closed in." She whispered.
Anna carefully and quietly tip toed out of the palace, having only one destination in mind. She wandered down the snowy path until she came across the frozen falls where she, Kristoff and Sven had first stumbled into Olaf. It was less extravagantly in the dead of night, the light of day no longer illuminating the clearing the same way it did a year ago. It was still as quiet as she remembered it being, but the perpetual silence did not bother her for she knew the song of fire would soon fill the sky.
In actuality, it was just a dance. The same one she'd done a week back when the urge to demonstrate her capabilities overwhelmed her. She held no grace in her dance, had no reservations binding her down the way the dances at home often did. She simply allowed her limbs to move to the beat of her own heart, hearing the whoosh of her magic, feeling the heat of her flames. She danced beneath the moonlight, spinning; jumping; dipping to a song only her flames could make. She was lost within herself.
For the first time in forever, she felt free.
She had never known she felt that way.
But being lost came with a price.
For every twirl of her night gown, for every wave of her hands, her flames grew in size, became more erratic with the passion of her feelings.
For every step she took, a ripple of fire shot through the snow, melting the layers and cracking the ice beneath. Lassos of flames whipped from her hands, lashing out to the frozen trees. The crystals of ice were starting to melt; the clearing no longer felt as crisp as before.
It wasn't until the princess reached the end of her dance did she finally stop and open her eyes.
She wished she hadn't.
The frozen falls were lit ablaze.
"No! Stop! Stop!" She gaped, eying everything as the flames melted through snow and ate at trees. She tried to silence the flames with her hands, but her panic only fueled the intensity of the inferno. She watched, horrified, as the monstrous strength of her fire destroyed the clearing in a matter of seconds, leaving behind ash and smoke as a reminder of the truth.
Fire is destructive no matter how beautiful.
No matter how special.
Anna's starting to wonder when is Elsa ever going to teach her something practical. On the one hand, I think she's doing a very good job not letting her accidents bring her down. She's having more oopsies with her fire than Elsa ever did with her ice, but can anyone blame her? Fire is such a finicky element.
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