Krista woke up to the sound of soft snoring.
Which was weird because a) trolls did not snore and b) neither did reindeers. At least Suri didn't, ever. Her eyes were slits, and the most she could see was the dim light of a fire somewhere. She stayed still for a moment longer, for some reason she felt really comfortable, for the first time in a while actually. But then she remembered where she was. She'd been watching over the Prince until he fell asleep again, keeping his rapidly decreasing temperature in check, and then her eyes grew heavy and—
She opened her eyes fully and felt the slow but still steady beating of Andy's heart under her ear.
Still beating, still beating, thank the gods—
And then she remembered who he was and who she was and she jerked back. That was the Prince of Arendelle she'd been snuggling against holy gods. He was still fast asleep, his mouth slightly agape with a fine line of drool on his chin; with his splatter of freckles across his nose and the innocent face, he looked so peaceful.
She felt a flutter on her chest and she wanted to both stop it and make it last forever. And yet, she couldn't help but smile. He hadn't felt so cold. Not like he had a while ago, when his skin had felt damn near like ice. Stop thinking about it.
Krista felt a nudge from behind, but powerful enough so she went flying back into the Prince. She managed to stop herself so her hands landed on either side of him, she was hovering over Andy. She glared over her shoulder at Suri.
"You little—" she hissed. Her so—called friend snorted and stomped her hooves, and if reindeers could smirk, this one was.
She looked up at Andy who was wrinkling his nose— maybe having dreams again? Or waking up?
He's engaged to someone else.
The thought practically left a sour taste in her mouth. She sighed, started to pull away. Suri made a disappointed sound, and Andy's green eyes fluttered open.
"Hello?" he said, an amused smile immediately gracing his face.
Krista would have absolutely loved to be a troll right then and be able to turn into stone. She envied all her family that moment. She felt the tips of her ears get warm as she hastily pulled away and backed up as far as possible, "Suri—pushed me, I— don't you dare think—"
"Krista—" Andy began with a cheeky face she wanted to slap right off his face, but just then there was a gasp of shock that cut him off.
The General had come back.
Naturally, he went ballistic.
• • •
"I leave you alone for 5 seconds—so irresponsible— never in my life—"
"You've been alive for barely a day," Krista retorted.
The General sputtered in anger and pointed a finger at her, "Well! You were the one making the advances here, I saw you!"
"I so wasn't—"
"— trying to seduce the young man. Unacceptable!"
"Yeah, Krista, you were so seducing me," Andy laughed, ignoring the stinging pain in his chest that the simple action caused. Erik and Gerda stood to the side, trying to hide their laughter as well. Krista's face, though, was priceless. He believed the poor mountain girl, considering how smug Suri looked, but the General was blind to that. And, hey, after all her teasing about Helena and all that other stuff, it was nice to see her get flustered for a change.
"And you," the General turned to him then. He was sure that if the General had had any blood pumping through his veins, his face would've been purple by now, "Were you raised in the bloody jungle? It's your fault as well!"
Andy's smile melted, "Wait, what? No, no, I'm good. I'm innocent. But Krista here can't seem to keep her hands—"
He felt a chill run through him and a tiny spasm ripped through his body. It was as if the cold hand holding his heart had squeezed it. Like a reminder, still here, still cold.
"His hair," Krista gasped, as she broke the General's new rule that she had to be at least 5 feet away from him. The General didn't seem to care, though, he also rushed to his side. Krista grabbed his face, her own full of worry as she stared at the patch of white on his hair, "It's spreading again."
"What happens when all of it turns white?" Gerda's fearful voice whispered.
"It won't," Krista all but growled. "My family can fix this."
"How do you know that?" the General said.
"Cos I've seen them do it before," she stood up and went over to somewhere out of Andy's sight, and came back with a new satchel, "We gotta leave pronto."
"I haven't finished packing your—" Gerda started, but Krista was already putting a harness on Suri and fastening the straps.
"Can your family do magic, girl?" Erik said with the distasteful tone the real one always used when speaking of magical things. Which was stupid, because this Erik was made entirely from magic. Guess Elliott's creations got as close to the real ones as they could.
Krista didn't meet his icy eyes and didn't stop getting supplies together, "Yeah."
"You should not leave the safety of this cave," Erik advised, "Who knows what the two Meltling leaders might be planning."
Krista regarded him coolly, "The leaders?"
"We met with the unbearable shrieking one when climbing to the North Mountain, but I took care of her," the General told him, "We haven't encountered the actually threatening one."
"And I really don't want to meet the actually threatening one," Krista leaned down to help Andy to his feet. She then managed to get him onto Suri's back and he clung to the reindeer's neck clumsily. "Thank you for helping us, though. Thank you so much."
"Of course," Gerda bowed her head and Erik arched an icy brow but the snow teacher didn't say anything. Krista sat behind Andy and helped him into a more comfortable position. The General then joined them, again clinging to Krista's shoulders like those tiny bears across the world— with the big noses, Koalas were they called?
"You'll stay here?" Andy said, trying to even out his breathing and get the pain to stop. The little spasm had felt horrible— but it had ended really fast, and he was now kind of alright. At least he'd hold on a while longer, he hoped it'd be enough to reach Krista's family.
"Yes, m'lord," Gerda said. "Please be careful of the Meltlings."
"If the two leaders weren't together, the other one is up to something," Erik's voice called as they exited the cave, "Be on guard."
Like they needed to be told that.
• • •
YOUR LAND SHALL BE CURSED WITH UNDENDING WINTER
Elliott got the sudden urge to throw the book across the room and never pick it up again.
The line sounded almost prophetic— because, hadn't he just done that? Curse Arendelle with winter in summer? And he couldn't stop it.
The little handwriting on the note was loopy and elaborated, and his gut instinct told him it was a girl's. Queen Adela. He stared at the picture of his ancestor a while longer. He wondered it if had been her had that had wrote that warning, prophecy, or whatever it was. He turned the brittle page, and the next was full of words.
Adela of House Stormur was daughter to King Alfons and Queen Ida. Born with a secret power so great, alone, she stayed in fear. Although the force was hidden, one day she let it go. And all the land was covered in eternal ice and snow.
Elliott couldn't read the next part, as it was suddenly covered in a thin layer of frost. His heart was so still with tension that he was afraid it would crack. His hands were frozen over too. He wasn't a complete freak... there had been someone like him, once.
Get it together, he willed for the ice to go away and let him continue. But the Queen's story, it was... was just like his own.
The kingdom splintered, and she was shunned and left alone. Her heart was broken twice and slowly her soul turned to ice. She lived in exile, far away from all she knew.
Lost her kingdom and her family, Elliott thought darkly, just like me. Everything is exactly—
He didn't want to continue this story, because so far it was hitting too close to home. The kind of rhyming the author had used wasn't all that great either. He knew how it would end; with lots of self-hate and fear, didn't he know it. But it said she was the first ruler of Arendelle. How did that come to be—?
But then the Usurper came from the South. With an army of 10, 000 men he threatened to conquer the frozen kingdom. The King and the Queen relented, begging their daughter for help.
Well... that was an interesting turn of events. Elliott knew the story of Gregor the Usurper, some southern lord who thought he could conquer the North. On record, on the stories his tutor Erik had read him, unexpected weather conditions killed the Usurper because he was not prepared for the cold of the North. But then nothing else.
The exiled Princess did not measure her strength, and between her fear and her hate, she created a glacier that destroyed everything in its wake. The Fjord was created, and so was the Ice Queen.
Elliott took a huge breath through his nose— he had certainly not expected that. He let out the breath slowly and turned the page, where the story continued. The happy ending he secretly longed for seemed less and less likely.
She ruled over men and women of her own creation, made entirely of snow, the madness settling over her like a veil of hate and mourn. Huge, bulking ice monsters carried rock from the mountain, and soon the snow people had built a palace and a village. The eternal winter of the Ice Queen kept them alive.
It was official. Elliott hated this story. Things like Meltlings had built Arendelle.
She lived isolated until a vast migration of people arrived. They had escaped the raging war of the East and the South, seeking shelter. Queen Adela was at a loss; why would they want to live with a monster such as her?
Elliott could relate on a deep level with the poor, mad Ice Queen.
But the people believed in her, and saw that she was good. Soon the village was populated, and she did not need her ice monsters anymore. Together they created a new prosperous kingdom, and so Arendelle was born. She felt free and loved, there was beauty to be had in a magic so like hers. The people adored her, and so love thawed in the end.
Love...
Love...will...thaw...
Elliott frowned, he didn't really understand the ending or the secret to ending the winter, but he felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Those first Arendellers, they had known about Adela's magic and they... they had accepted her. They adored her, it said. They weren't... afraid of her. The kingdom had been prosperous. Elliott felt like a fool. It was him who had been afraid, not the others. Well, save for the Duchess of Sandlane. But see Andy— how eager and how accepting he had been. How he'd pleaded to get him to go back...
Fear will be your enemy.
The old troll had been right.
Queen Adela killed everyone she loved, a voice said in the back of his mind, you think you can be any different?
Could he?
Yes, a stronger voice replied for him, the old troll said there was beauty in your magic. And there is. Look around.
Elliott felt tears sting his eyes as he indeed looked around at the amazing ice ceiling and perfectly sculpted everything—else. General Winter, full of life. The second voice had sounded like his father's. The first one had sounded like him.
"Or I'm just going crazy," he said out loud, closing the book, "Like she did."
But he'd be lying if he said he didn't want an ending similar to Adela's. She had suffered a great deal, but in the end...
But the people believed in her, and saw that she was good.
Never mind. He liked the story. The ending gave him hope.
He smiled crookedly and put the book away, a resolution forming slowly in his mind.
Elliott wanted one for himself, even if monsters didn't get happy endings.
• • •
The closer they got to the Valley of the Living Rock, the more anxious Krista got too.
The sky was dark, with the Northern Lights guiding her way home like they often had on many other occasions. The King's storm had barely affected that general area, and she wondered if that was Grand Pabbie's earth magic. Huge, mossy stones and the smell of wet earth told her that home was close.
The General lounged on Suri's back without a care in the world, his icy eyes fixed on the dancing green and red and blue lights in the sky. Andy and Krista walked behind them, because the Prince had just insisted that he could walk by himself. He was still a little brooding after her confession, but he seemed to understand at least.
"Don't fall asleep, Soldier Anders, sleep is for the weak!" the General rumbled when Andy had been teetering dangerously close to his side.
"I—I'm not!" the Prince protested, blinking fast. But he had. He was getting weaker, and his hair whiter. He shivered.
Krista instinctively went to put her arm around his shoulders, but hesitated and pulled back at the last second. She passed it off as rubbing the back of her neck instead, blushing. Andy hadn't even noticed. He was too busy feeling cold and miserable.
"Hey... so, about my family..." she tried to distract him, "They're, uh... not, like, my biological family."
"You're adopted?" Andy blurted out. That seemed to pull him out of his probably not very positive thoughts.
"Yeah... it was just me and Suri after...well..." Krista shrugged, leaving the rest to his imagination, "Point is, they took us in."
"They did?" Andy smiled warmly, for the first time since they'd left the cave, "So you don't have magic like them?"
"Nope. I'm completely ordinary."
Andy nodded thoughtfully, "Can't wait to meet them."
Krista laughed nervously, "Yeah, um, I just wanted to give you a head's up, cos they can be, like... loud. Very loud. They talk a lot of nonsense. And they're inappropriate. A little overbearing at times."
"And you say you're not related," Andy cracked a smile. She smacked his arm, but she was glad to see him more or less happy.
"And they're heavy," she added as an after—thought, "Really, really heavy."
Suri snorted, looking back at them over her shoulder like she understood. That's an understatement.
"Krista, I bet they're lovely," the Prince touched her arm lightly, a small smile on his face, "They raised you and took care of my brain damage. How could I not like them?"
"Brain damage..." he managed to get her to laugh, and he looked notably pleased. He'd stopped shivering for now, which is always a good thing. But then she stopped when they reached the clearing. "Okay, then..." she took a deep breath and stepped into the valley, "Here we are!"
The General jumped down from Suri's back and scanned the area, but all there was to see were rocks.
• • •
"Hey guys!" Krista called cheerily to the bunch of rocks. She turned and smiled at the dumbfounded General Winter and Prince of Arendelle, a broad smile on her face, "Meet my family!"
That's all the valley seemed to have. Rocks and moss and grass. No sign of Elliott's storm anywhere, which was odd since the rest of the Kingdom was affected by it.
"...they're rocks," the General stated.
"Scaur, you're looking great!" Krista said amiably to one of the rocks, like one would greet a close friend. "You've lost some weight!"
Suri bounded excitedly from rock to rock, sniffing and nudging them with her nose. Her tiny tail wagged happily like a dog's. Andy simply stood there, his brow furrowed. He wasn't about to call Krista crazy, he'd spent most of his life talking to pictures on walls and busts of marble, so he definitely wasn't one to judge. But the General was.
"She's gone bonkers, m'boy," the General said, barely moving his snowy lips, Andy had to lean in to listen, "I'll distract her, and you run. You run like your hair's on fire. Understand?"
Meanwhile, Krista seemed to be looking for her mother, "Ma? Where are you?"
"Hi, Krista's family," the General said in a slow, loud voice, "It's nice to meet you!" he walked up to the nearest mossy rock he could find and patted it, "There, there, nice rock. Beautiful rockiness. Aren't you precious."
"Umm..." Andy glanced between Krista and the General, who was glaring at him now.
"Why aren't you running?" he hissed, but then he turned to the rock with a wide smile, "I've been told you can do the magic!"
"I— uh, I have to—," Andy took a few steps back and almost stumbled, he decided to heed the General's advice and bolt. Maybe come back once—
But suddenly the rocks started to roll towards the center of the valley, where Krista was. The rock the General had been touching sprung up into a tiny creature with big eyes and a flat nose. It winked at him and thanked him for the compliment before it rolled away to join the others.
The sound of a rocky avalanche ended when all the rocks had gathered and unfolded, all of them around the same size save for the... children, who were half that size. They had different colored crystals hanging around their necks and clothes made of grass and moss. All Andy could do was stare.
"My little girl's home!" a woman's deep voice yelled, and a bunch of the rock creatures cheered.
"Krista! Krista!"
"It's been so long! Krista's home!"
Andy's mouth was open dumbly. All he could do was a mix of staring and trying to form a coherent sentence. The small creatures had all their undivided attention on Krista, who was grinning from ear to ear. A sea of voices were welcoming her.
"Oh, lemme look at you!"
"Suri's hungry, Kri-Kri!"
"Where's your hat?"
"Baby, what happened to your head?!" that was the woman's voice again. Krista got yanked down by pure rock strength and got inspected, "Why is it bandaged? Who hurt you?"
"Ah! No, Ma, I'm fine, just a little bump," Krista laughed and touched the bandages gingerly, then she stood up and looked around over the sea of heads, "Is grandpa around?"
"He went with the littles to look for herbs," one of them replied, "He'll be back shortly."
"Krista, carry me!" one of the little ones jumped up into Krista's arms. She gasped and struggled to hold the weight of the little creature, but she managed it. After a heartbeat, it dawned on Andy.
"Oh... oh, they're trolls!" Andy had said it in a normal, awed tone, but his voice came out louder than all the others. Everyone heard it. Hundreds of shiny black eyes turned to stare at him at the edge of the valley.
General Winter drew his sword. "Stay back!"
"She brought a man!" the woman troll, Krista's Ma, raised her arms to the sky like praise the gods.
The sea of rocks launched themselves at him.
+++ Kay so for the Adela story I used some of the lines from Frozen's first trailer, when they were talking about Elsa? I thought that fit in kinda nice.
++ thanks to everyone who wished me luck in my exams! not done yet, but i wanted this up as soon as possible because yes
+ So! Fixer upper up next, eh... was never a huge fan of that song, and since it serves little purpose the transition is gonna be a little tricky but I think i may have figured something out. we'll see how that rolls, hopefully not too bad
(theres like 50000 things inspired by game of thones so yeee)
thank you for reading!:)