Disclaimer:
Frozen, Tangled, The Little Mermaid (c) Disney.
Brave (c) Pixar
I do, however, own the OCs Mikkel, Vegar, King Marcus, Frida, Kasia and Harmonia.
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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And now, Princess Anna shall grace us with a beautiful performance.
Chapter Ten
Anna had never been one to shy away from the spotlight.
She was a princess after all, everything she did was always watched by invisible eyes. Growing up in isolation had helped as well. It fueled the girl's desire to be seen, to be acknowledged and spoken to—never ignored. The manifestation of her fire worsened that desire, because then, she wanted people to know that she was just as special as Elsa; that she wasn't just the Princess of Arendelle or Elsa's klutzy little sister.
When she joined Esmeralda in a dance with a flaming staff that she twirled with grace she never knew she was capable of, she felt surreal.
The expression on Kristoff's face when she caught a spinning baton Esmeralda had tossed at her made her laugh in exhilaration.
The look of awe on both Olaf's and Rapunzel's face whenever they did a spectacular trick made the flames on stage burn like a beacon of light amidst the vast darkness of night.
It was the look on Elsa's face that told Anna the whole thing had been a great idea. When Esmeralda left Anna the stage for her solo, it was to her sister she stared at—and what she saw made her heart fly.
The way she manipulated her fire with the props she'd been given; the way the world seemed to darken when Anna's flames flew all about; the way she could write words in the air; spin a fiery creatures to life; it all accumulated down to that one emotion on Elsa's face: the realization that fire could be just as beautiful as ice.
The awe and wonder that rippled across the faces of the crowd was overwhelming. The cheer that followed after, deafening.
Yet Anna's joy was short lived. She felt strained. The excitement of the day coupled with the exhaustion of a bad night's rest slammed into her mind like a freight train. The stress of planning the festival; of arguing with Elsa and Kristoff, coupled with the intense heat wave in Arendelle and the lack of proper release of her flame overloaded her mind, her heart and her soul.
A white hot pain erupted in her heart, squeezing the air from her lungs, and making her fall in the midst of her dance. She heard her sister scream amongst the horrified gasps, but her ears were immediately overwhelmed by the sudden roar of fire bursting from her flesh. It rippled across the stage, setting everything in its path ablaze.
The horrified gasps turned into screams of terror. The crowd of hundreds immediately tried to flee, knocking everything in their path aside to escape the flames.
Having been in the front row, Elsa erected a wall of ice six inches thick to block the torrent of blue flame raging at them. Holding her ground was immensely difficult, especially when her sister's flame was so hot it rapidly melted through her protective wall.
Anna struggled to regain her footing, yet the painful heat that cooked her body from the inside kept her muscles from fully functioning; her energy drained. Everything she touched seemed to catch fire, even the clothes she wore.
She watched through the blur of her darkening vision as the decorations of the festival lit up in white-blue fire, slowly curling and blackening into ash.
The last thing she heard before the darkness claimed her was Kristoff's angry voice reminding her what she had never wanted to believe. What she had accidentally proved.
Your fire isn't light… your fire is a curse…
It wasn't usual for castles in Arendelle to have an infirmary. When royalty got sick, a royal physician was hired and brought to the castle. When servants got sick, it was their own duty to go see a physician or if they couldn't afford one, do everything in their power to keep from spreading the illness.
When Elsa became Queen, she had debated back and forth with Mikkel and Kai on whether or not building an infirmary wing was beneficial for the workers in the castle. No decision had ever been made and it stayed as just a possible proposition on Elsa's desk for months on after. But when the festival had first been brought up, one of the things Elsa made sure to create was a temporary infirmary wing. She had hoped the wing would never be needed, but Fate was a fickle mistress.
When Anna collapsed that night and set her blue fire free on the festival, Elsa had never been so relieved to have planned ahead than she did then.
Extinguishing magic fire had proved to be a laborious task. Regular water from the sea proved useless against the sapphire flames. It was much too hot for the water to even attempt to reach it. It simply vaporized the moment it was within proximity of the heat. It was only through Elsa's snow and ice did they manage to put out most of the flames and even then, parts of the town were still smoldering. It took a mixture of dirt and gallons of water to smother the fire to death.
Once the blasted inferno had been extinguished, it was Elsa who carried her unconscious sibling into the castle, for the red head's skin was much too hot for Kristoff or Eugene to old and the stark nakedness of her skin made all others falter.
She frosted the girl's room in thick layers of ice; made a light flurry of snow descend from the ceiling, all in hopes of chasing the heat from the bedroom and cool the atrocious fire within from cooking her sister alive. Anna's breath came out in tiny puffs, her naked body quaking lightly for the first time since her powers came to be.
Elsa tucked her under the sheets, more so to hide her modesty than actual warmth then watched in dismay as vapor began to radiate from the girl's skin. Her body was already heating up again.
"Oh Anna," She whispered, brushing a few strands of sunset red hair from the girl's forehead. She pressed a gentle kiss against the overheated temple, silently praying to whatever Gods that be for her sister to be awake and well.
She didn't leave her sister's side until she was sure the air was cool enough to keep Anna's heat from melting away the frost; and even then, she stayed a few seconds longer, dreading what awaited her outside the door.
When she could stall no longer, Elsa steeled herself, slipped on the mask of the Snow Queen of Arendelle then quietly slipped out of the snowy room.
The council room was in an uproar.
"I can't believe this! I knew there was something fishy about her the moment I laid my eyes on her." Eugene confessed, pacing around the room with left over adrenaline. He whirled on Elsa the minute she shut the door. "Why didn't you say something? Your sister can make fire!"
"What my sister does was never of any importance to anyone outside my family." Elsa remarkably coldly. "Your only concern was to the festival. Not her privacy."
"Privacy?!"
"Eugene—" Rapunzel tried but her husband raised a hand.
"That's not a privilege to privacy Elsa! What we just witnessed—that crazy blue fire thing—is power! Hiding something like that from everyone—are you insane?! It's only fair on behalf of Corona's alliance that we were told about your sister's powers!"
The atmosphere in the room dropped noticeably as Elsa's light blue eyes narrowed in anger.
"Why would that be 'fair' for Corona or any of Arendelle's alliances?" She hissed. "Do you plan on waging war against us because you fear our magic? Or did you plan on making us weapons against your enemies?"
"Enough!" Merida scowled, standing in between the two. "There will be no talks of war here! Stand down!"
Eugene and Elsa drew back from each other, their eyes blazing with an unresolved challenge. It was the Snow Queen who broke away the eye contact, the rational part of her mind trying desperately to tape down her anxieties and anger before she too lost control and make things worse. Arendelle didn't need another reason to fear.
"How is Anna?" Rapunzel asked tentatively, her fingers softly caressing Pascal.
Elsa sighed tiredly. "She'll be OK." The platinum blonde turned to Mikkel, who looked up with wide eyes, surprised to be suddenly acknowledged. "Do you have a report about the damages?"
"You don't need a report. Just go to the infirmary." Eugene muttered darkly.
She ignored him.
Mikkel searched through his pile of papers until he found one with hastily scribbled ink decorating along the page. He scanned the report with a careful eye, his expression grim and pale.
"Forty percent of the town has been destroyed by the fire. Hundreds of families have been displaced, hundreds more injured. Ten people have been reported missing—"
"Any fatalities?" Elsa interrupted, rubbing her temples.
"At the moment? Seven have been reported, but the physicians expect more should the injured not make it through the night."
Kristoff and the others felt the cold fill the room before Elsa's face reacted to the news. A melancholic flurry of snow began to pour outside the window, but turned to light rain due to the heat of summer. (Elsa couldn't help but feel the rain was more appropriate than snow.)
"Don't worry about the damages," Queen Ariel spoke up, catching everyone's attention. She approached the young Queen and laid a warm, gentle hand on her shoulder. "On behalf of our friendship—and of our alliance—Denmark shall help rebuild Arendelle."
"I can't ask that of you, Ariel."
"You're not." The graying red head smiled warmly. "I'm doing it without your consent."
"Me too!" Rapunzel stated, rising out of her chair, Pascal safely perched on her shoulder. "As crown Princess of Corona, I will also help fund the rebuilding effort."
"And what about those fatalities?" Eugene asked.
The atmosphere in the room tensed again, not wanting to entertain the thought of having Princess Anna know the true extent of her accident.
Kristoff turned to Elsa, watching the Queen stare out the window in melancholy.
"She needs to know, Elsa." He said softly.
She closed her eyes. "I'll tell her."
Anna opened her eyes at the sound of the door, knowing instinctively that it was her sister. She hadn't been awake for long, ten minutes tops, she supposed, but the desire to leave her bedroom hadn't urged her to move.
She didn't want to leave the soft comfort of her bed, even if it was a little moist from melted frost. She didn't want to crawl out of bed to properly hide her nudity, nor did she feel the need to wash away the black smear of her makeup from her heated flesh. She didn't want to untie the small ribbons from her hair; didn't want to undo the miniature braids.
All she wanted to do was watch her sister's light flurries turn to rain in her bedroom.
It physically pained her when Elsa's presence strengthen those flurries into a proper snow fall.
"How can you rest when your bed is wet?"
"I know that's not what you want to ask me."
Elsa pulled the vanity stool beside the bed and sat. Anna kept her back towards her sister, golden eyes watching the snow.
"How do you feel?" Elsa asked after a moment of silence.
"Like a volcano."
The light shower of snow were beginning to melt again.
Elsa made to speak again, when Anna beat her to the punch.
"You know what the difference between our powers are?" The red head asked, not truly expecting a reply. "It takes a while for the cold to hurt."
"Anna—"
"When you froze Arendelle for a day," the princess continued, ignoring her sister. "The damage wasn't lasting. No one got hurt except for maybe you and me."
"Where are you going with this?"
Anna finally turned to her sister, golden eyes glassy with unshed tears, yet sharp with internal anger. "Did I hurt anyone?"
Elsa quickly looked away, suddenly finding it difficult to look her sister in the eyes.
That was all the answer she needed.
Heat pooled into the room with such intensity, all the frost and snow Elsa had been trying hard to maintain turned to water then vapor in an instant. Anna buried her face deep into her pillow, trying her best to muffle the anguished cries of her broken heart.
Elsa's own heart broke with hers. She tried to reach out, wanting to comfort her little sister, but withdrew her hand with a hiss. Anna's flesh was too hot to touch, even for the Queen of ice and snow.
Things only got worse when the heat intensified.
Elsa couldn't breathe.
She needed to leave. She had no choice.
Anna's tears fell harder when she did.
Let it burn~ Let it buuurn~ Can't hold it back anymore. Let it burn, let it buurn~
Show of hands who saw this coming? Tsk, tsk. This is what I call a self-fulfilling prophecy. If only Elsa had just let her be :P
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Let's have a moment of silence for the Great Fire of Arendelle.